Drop the Jargon

Next Tuesday, 23 October, is Drop the Jargon Day, an initiative of the Australian healthcare industry to encourage the use of simple language by health care providers so that more patients can enjoy better results.

Research has found that the use of more simple health language in organisations can dramatically improve health outcomes for patients and clients, particularly those in the most marginalised population groups.

Knowing this, ‘Drop the Jargon’ was created four years ago by leaders in the health industry to promote good communication practices that would help organisations reach more people in the community.

On Drop the Jargon Day, people are asked to go to their website and fill in a pledge that they will ‘drop the jargon’ to make health (and other) information easier to understand.

Why should I pledge?

• 6 out of 10 of people in Australia have low health literacy.
• Many Australians have trouble understanding and using information provided by organisations. They also have trouble navigating complicated systems like healthcare services.
• When we use jargon, technical terms or acronyms, it is hard for people with low health literacy to understand and use information.

We’ll be working to help our clients better understand the information we share, and encourage you to visit ‘Drop the Jargon’ to see how you can make it easier for people with low literacy to get better information and outcomes from services they use.