Health literacy impacts consumers’ behaviours and health care service use. Cancer literacy poses a unique set of challenges compared with other types of health literacy, as consumer decisions regarding screening, treatment, and managing side effects are often complex, and timely decision-making is more critical.

Accessible, relevant, and tailored information and care is critical to enhancing all interaction consumers have with the cancer care system. Health literacy empowers consumers to participate fully and equally in their care and make informed decisions and reduces cancer-related stigma in the process.[131] Equitable access to information and care is also an important lever to improve system-level disparities in cancer experiences between different populations.

Activities to achieve this 2-year action may include:

• co-designing information and care to be consumer-led, person-centred, tailored, and localised according to priority population groups, cancer stages, settings, and locations
• improving ease of access to information and care to the whole community and all Australians, including priority population groups, while minimising pressures on scarce human resources
• expanding access to health literacy programs and tools
• listing and promoting access to supportive care such as psychosocial services, financial support, and allied health care
• ensuring the continual evolution of information and care models as consumers move through their cancer care journey and needs change over time
• improving transparency of costs and finance support options to reduce financial stress and burden on consumers
• testing availability and suitability of information and care with consumers and integrating learnings into future activities.

Improvements to the availability of co-designed, tailored information, and care should be undertaken in alignment with existing Optimal Care Pathways (OCPs) and the multi-channel, multi-disciplined navigation models (see Action 2.2.1 Develop a national framework for and implement integrated multi-channel, multi-disciplined navigation models that ensure the right support at the right time for every consumer across the cancer continuum). Activities for this action should also seek to leverage the benefits of technologies for delivering information, care and supportive services virtually, expanding the reach of information and care to more consumers including their carers and families across Australia.