The role of parental literacy and numeracy (and health literacy) in raising children with chronic illness or disability and managing their care

It would be extremely interesting to work with a children's hospital such as Great Ormond Street to better understand the impact of parental literacy and numeracy and health literacy levels on the care of children with chronic illnesses or disabilities. Key issues would be what challenges poor literacy skills do (and do not) give rise to, and, where challenges exist, how parents -- possibly working with their children, other family members or other parents of children with similar conditions -- negotiate them. It would also be very interesting to see what steps the health care system takes to assess and assist with literacy, numeracy and/or health literacy needs -- both at organisational/structural level (e.g. the hospital as an entity) and at individual level, e.g. nurses, doctors, etc. Are patient education materials developed with the input of low literacy families and/or children themselves? How much of a difference to improved efforts in this area make to patients and their families, both in terms of health and satisfaction with the service? And what are the economics of improved attention to family literacy and numeracy issues?