Frequently Asked Questions

General

IHA's Health Literacy Solutions Center is a free online community dedicated to advancing health literacy and health equity. It provides a space for professionals to connect, share knowledge, access resources, and engage in discussions focused on policy, practice, and research. The platform supports health literacy professionals in their efforts to improve public understanding and communication about health-related information and services.

None! It’s absolutely free to use at no cost to you – it’s all sponsored by the Institute for Healthcare Advancement (IHA).

All the information that is contained within HLSC is private and will never be sold. Please feel free to visit our Terms and Conditions page which will include community rules & etiquette, and privacy guidelines.

Logging In

If you are already a member of IHA's Health Literacy Solutions Center, simply reset your password on the new system:

  1. Click on the Did You Forget Your Password? link found in the "Login or Register" page, here.

  2. Enter the same email address you used to register.

  3. Click on the red "Send Password Link" button. You will receive an email from us containing a link to reset your password. Be sure to check your spam folder if you don't see it in your inbox.

  4. Click on the link contained in the email.

  5. You will be taken to a page that will allow you to specify a password. Type in your password and again below it as confirmation.

  6. Click on the "Update" button.

  7. You may now log in using your new password.

It's simple to join! To join IHA's Health Literacy Solutions Center, do the following:

  1. From IHA Health Literacy Solutions Center homepage, click on the LogIn/SignUp link in the upper right corner.

  2. Under "Create Account", enter your demographic information. At minimum, we require your email address, first, and last name but the more information you provide to the community, the better the experience for all. Don't worry, you can control who sees what within your new profile.

  3. Click on the "Create Account" button. You will be sent an email asking you to verify your email address.

  4. Click on the link provided in that email. Your account will be sent to an admin for approval.

  5. Once approved, you will receive an email letting you know.

  6. You can now set up your password. Instructions on how to reset your password are below.

Follow the steps below to reset or set up a password:

  1. From IHA Health Literacy Solutions Center homepage, click on the red "Sign in / LogIn" button at the top right.

  2. Click on the “Did You Forget Your Password”? link.

  3. Enter your email address and click on the "Send Password Link" button.

  4. Check your email inbox for the password reset email. Be sure to check your spam folder if you don't see it.

  5. Click on the link contained within the password reset email.

  6. On the password reset page, type in your new password and then again below to confirm it.

  7. Click on the "Update" button.

  8. You may now log into HLSC.

To complete your profile, do the following:

Credibility

  • Completing a profile can increase a member's credibility within the community.

Content

  • A compelling profile can encourage people to look for more information and content outside of the online community.

Communication

  • Complete profiles allow members to connect with each other.

Information

  • Profiles can provide accurate information about members, and can make the community appear more active.

Job board

  • A member's profile can also serve as their job board profile, which can reduce the number of profiles members need to maintain. Single sign-on can also help members find career opportunities without switching between platforms.

Expert profile

  • A speaker or expert profile allows community members to see who a member is and what their expertise is. Members can choose to show or hide their profile in search results.

Personal information

  • Members can share information about themselves with other members, such as their education history, job history, and personal bio. Site staff can dictate what types of demographic information can be provided. 

To complete your profile, do the following:

  1. Log into the HealthLiteracySolutions.org site.

  2. Up at the top right hand corner of the site, click on the circle next to the search magnifying glass. This circle might have your profile picture in it if you have already added it.

  3. In the dropdown, click Profile.

  4. Your Profile page will display.

This page permits you to add a profile picture by clicking on the Actions button under the profile picture. You may also add a short bio, your education and job history by clicking their respective Add buttons.
Clicking Add under Social Links allows you to link your social media account with your IHA Health Literacy Solutions Center profile.

Community Functions

Communities allow you to participate in discussions and share resources with other members. Each community has its own discussion posts, shard file library, announcements, and blogs. You must first join a community in order to interact with its members.

All members are joined to the Health Literacy Main Community by default. This community operates as the central community.

  1. Hover over “Communities” and click on “All Communities” in order to see a list of available communities.

  2. Click on the community that you wish to join and simply click "Join".

  3. Then choose a delivery option for posts (Real Time, Daily Digest, Legacy or No Email).

  1. See above for the steps on how to list communities.

  2. Once you find the community you wish to post to, enter that community's Discussion area by clicking on any one of its Discussion buttons or links. From the community home, you can also click on "Add" next to "Latest Discussion Posts".

  3. Click on Post New Message.

  4. Type in a subject

  5. Type in your message in the body.

  6. Edit your signature, if you need to.

  7. If you want to attach a file to your post, click on the Attach button.

  8. Click on Send when done.

  • Click on the red Sign In button to sign in to IHA's Health Literacy Solutions Center website.
  • Sign in to your account.
  • Click on your picture or the down arrow to access your profile.
  • Click on Profile.
  • Under My Account, click on Community Notifications.
  • Under Notification Settings, select the community’s subscription type:
    a. Real Time – Receive discussion posts immediately.
    b. Daily Digest – Receive discussion posts in a single daily email.
    c. No Email – Disable receiving discussion posts.
  • Select if the community posts should be included in either daily or weekly digests.
  • To make an update, simply select an option from the dropdown and/or checkboxes. These actions apply the update immediately.
  • You don’t need to save anything.

Resources

We’ve built a shared knowledge base of resources that are useful tools, articles, fact sheets, statistics, and other helpful items. Many of these came from suggestions from the Listserv members in response to other requests. Because information can change and evolve so quickly – add in a helpful resource to the resource library to help others find it and share it quickly and easily.

Viewing and searching through the Resources database requires member login.

Visit the Find a Resource page to begin searching for tools, articles, fact sheets, and other helpful items.

Note: You must log in to view or search through the database.

Use ordinary terms for searching the title, description, and keywords. For example, are your looking for childhood asthma? Try searching for "child asthma".

Further refine your search by selecting and deselecting tags, communities, and more on the left. Result types are identified by type with a green box, such as discussion posts, library files, and site pages.

Each item can be rated and commented.

To add a rating, Click on recommend to mark the item as recommended to others.

Some items allow comments. To comment, click Add above the comment line and type in a comment . If there is a problem with the resource, please use the feedback form at the right side panel to let us know.

The Internet is a dynamic source of information and as such, websites change constantly. Webpages come and go and it's nearly impossible to keep databases free from occasional bad links or other problems. Though we curate the resource and perform spotchecks, if you spot something a miss, please do let us know. In order to flag a resource as having a problem or a bad link, please use the feedback form on the right side panel to let us know. Please include the resource link and a short description of what the problem is.

Do you have a great resource that you’d like to share with the community? Please click Submit a Resource to add it to the resource library.