DOH encourages public to increase health literacy for hale communities

The Department of Health (DOH) on Friday encouraged the public to increase their health literacy to have a hale community.

“If we are knowledgeable ourselves to those factors which contribute to our health, what is healthy, what is not, then we contribute to healthy settings by lobbying and advocating for our settings to be healthy,” DOH Health Promotion Bureau division chief Dr. Miguel Angelo Mantaring said at the DOH Kapihan session.

Mantaring added the public should also make public officials accountable for providing a healthy setting for the community.

“At an individual level, that is where strengthening the community action for health promotion comes in so that the government listens and is able to provide the interventions which the people are trying to raise up and voice out,” he said.

“At an individual level, we can contribute to healthy settings, push for it and demand for it, and make sure that the people overseeing our settings to transform them as healthy are accountable to that.”

The DOH earlier launched a website aimed at educating the public about healthier lifestyle choices and the government’s COVID-19 response.

The Healthy Pilipinas website can be accessed via healthypilipinas.ph.

The website also tries to enable supportive environments for health promotion through tips, articles, and downloadable materials for local implementers. — DVM, GMA Integrated News