Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA) is a not-for-profit

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

, private operating foundation

Foundation (United States law)

A foundation in the United States is a type of charitable organization. However, the Internal Revenue Code distinguishes between private foundations and public charities...

 providing health care

Health care

Health care is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in humans. Health care is delivered by practitioners in medicine, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other care providers...

 and improving health literacy

Health literacy

Health literacy is an individual's ability to read, understand and use healthcare information to make decisions and follow instructions for treatment...

 at the national level. It is located in La Habra, California

La Habra, California

La Habra is a city in the northwestern corner of Orange County, California. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,239. Its related city, La Habra Heights is located to the north of La Habra, and is in Los Angeles County.-Origin of name:...

.

Local services

It provides children's medical and dental healthcare services at the Friends of Children Health Center.

The La Habra Family Resource Center is located on the Las Lomas Elementary School grounds. It is a complete, family-centered support system, working with community resources that can address the health, emotional, social, and academic needs of children and their families.

Health literacy publications

It published easy-to-read 'What to Do For Health' books, used by the states of California and South Dakota, health plans, Head Starts, health departments, and more; these books help reduce emergency room visits and costs.

Health Education Literacy Program (H.E.L.P.) Curriculum is an ESL (English as a Second Language) curriculum. As learners begin to master reading, writing, and speaking in English, they are also learning healthcare skills to become effective child caregivers. This project was funded through an English literacy and civics education grant from the Louisiana State Department of Education.

It has developed easy to use bilingual

Multilingualism

Multilingualism is the act of using, or promoting the use of, multiple languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of...

 versions of advance health care directives in English, Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

, Chinese

Chinese language

The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...

, and Vietnamese

Vietnamese language

Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...

; a Khmer

Khmer language

Khmer , or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language , with speakers in the tens of millions. Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious...

 version is being developed. It has been approved for use in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 and may be downloaded for free.

Health Literacy Conference

It sponsors an annual national Health Literacy Conference for healthcare professionals and educators to teach them about health literacy, the latest research, and how to improve their patient education

Patient education

Patient education is the process by which health professionals and others impart information to patients that will alter their health behaviors or improve their health status...

. It presents three awards for outstanding achievements in health literacy in the categories of Research, Innovative Programs, and Published Materials.

Annual themes

• 2002 Health Literacy - State of the Art
• 2003 Organizational Solutions
• 2004 Clinical and Educational Solutions
• 2005 Culture, Language and Clinical Issues
• 2006 Beyond the Written Word: Alternative Solutions
• 2007 Chronic Illness Management
• 2008 Primary Care - Best Practices and Skill Building
• 2009 Health Literacy - Bridging Research and Practice