Dear Community Members and and those curious about in the potential of health literacy for impacting NCDs,

Please see below the detailed description of Action Area 3 to Action Area 7 and provide your valuable inputs.

Kind regards Richard Osborne, Satish Melwani and Shandell Elmer, your facilitator team from Swinburne University of Technology.

*Action area 3: How is technology used to make health care information about NCDs, their shared risk factors and relevant services more accessible and responsive across populations?* 

Think about the full range of digital forms of communication - traditional/old ways such as SMS, radio, call centres and television as well as, high tech forms, Apps, social media, remote monitoring.

*Action area 4: What is being done to increase the skills of health care and health promotion staff and the capacity of organizations to effectively reach a diverse range of people to help them understand, address and mitigate NCD risk factors for themselves, their families and their communities?* 

This includes training staff and building capacity in health services for routine use of excellent communication practices (simple language, pictures, action planning, checking understanding and confidence). It requires awareness of diverse knowledge and learning styles in the community and the ability to adapt to individual needs. This requires that both the staff and the organization have flexible practices and a range of communication techniques.

*Action area 5: What strategies are being used for reaching and engaging those groups who are being left behind and not benefiting from our current strategies?* 

What is being done in your region/country to enhance understanding about NCDs, mental health and risk factors among the most disadvantaged communities, people who aren’t interacting with health services and/or preventive activities sufficiently or at all. This may focus on understanding health literacy issues (e.g. false beliefs, fear of health services, stigma) that limit people’s ability to understand the many determinants that limit the impact of our current approaches and to identify new, more suitable approaches.

*Action area 6: What is being done to build Community Health literacy about NCDs and about risk factor reduction?*

Influencing health beliefs and behaviour often requires engaging in community networks such as women’s health networks in rural towns, or men’s sporting clubs which can act as important platform to enable people to adapt health lifestyle practices and to engage in preventive services. Consider community leaders/groups that are educating and enabling people to adapt and sustain healthy lifestyle practices by avoiding risk factors for NCDs. It may also include what is being done to enhance consumer enablement and community action on health, and to develop skills to resist false information and unhealthy marketing by various companies.

*Action area 7: What intersectoral action and joint activities are occurring to impact on NCD risk factor reduction?*

In communicating health messages and supporting action on these messages the involvement of multiple sectors beyond health can be critical for effectiveness. This can involve joint activities with sectors such as education, agriculture and food production, police, civil engineering, industry, media and many others.

*Other Action area: i.e. a health literacy activity that does not fit into the above categories*

Describe any specific programs, including tools and materials that you are aware of around each action area and provide references, links or attachments.

You may also work with colleagues within your organisation to generate more detailed responses.