Plano de ação para a literacia em saúde 2019-2021: Portugal

Increasing the levels of Health Literacy, improving people’s critical thinking skills in matters regarding their health and providing the services and professionals with appropriate tools for this purpose, poses a challenge to the public health in Portugal. Therefore, the Directorate-General of Health, in line with the objectives of the National Health Plan, is both committed and dedicated to optimizing the Health Literacy levels of the Portuguese population. To this end and bearing in mind the current specific needs, the Directorate-General of Health (DGS) developed this Action Plan, based on the international best practices for setting and implementing objectives that promote Health Literacy, to maximise and create new opportunities for the engagement in healthy behaviours. The Plan may integrate other strategies, initiatives, projects or activities, including SNS+Proximity. The success of this Action Plan lies in the implementation of a set of measures that depend on the broad interaction of different stakeholders with a single purpose – to work on Health Literacy in order to promote health gains in the population’s health and well-being.