Wisconsin Literacy

Paul's Story

“What would you say if I told you there is a problem in the United States that affects up to 50% of the adult population, adds between $100 to $200 billion to the cost of health care each year, but goes unrecognized by most health care workers every day? Impossible! Outrageous! How can we be ignoring something this important?”

The above quote is taken from Dr. Paul Smith’s personal website that has become a source of critical information in the new and burgeoning field of health literacy. Paul is making sure that health literacy is no longer ignored in Wisconsin and throughout the country. He has been a true catalyst for change in developing and sharing his personal approach to a huge problem that puts patient safety at risk and affects millions of Americans who enter the health care system with low literacy skills.

Equipped with an informative PowerPoint presentation and many hours researching a topic that was not well researched or published, Paul began a campaign of his own to educate and inform Wisconsin’s health care community about the many barriers and ill effects adults with low literacy skills encounter when they enter the health care system. Paul has made presentations to countless health care and education organizations, hospitals, clinics and conferences. He also led a focus group study with adult literacy programs and designed a workshop on rewriting patient education materials at lower literacy levels. He continues to work tirelessly on the issue of health literacy for the benefit of all literacy programs in Wisconsin.

~Paul received the statewide Advocate of the Year Award in 2008 from Wisconsin Literacy for his health literacy work. He was nominated by Racine Literacy Council.