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Literacy Is More Than Reading: It Is Access, Agency and Mental Wellbeing
MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
8 September 2026
AAMHP marks the 60th International Literacy Day and calls for accessible, understandable mental-health information and services
The Australian Association of Mental Health Practitioners (AAMHP) is marking International Literacy Day by calling for a broader understanding of literacy as an issue of dignity, participation, health and psychological wellbeing.
Celebrated internationally on 8 September, International Literacy Day reaches its 60th anniversary in 2026. UNESCO is marking the year under the theme “Literacy for people, the planet and prosperity”, recognising literacy as a fundamental human right and an important foundation for participation in social, economic and community life.
Despite decades of progress, UNESCO estimates that at least 739 million young people and adults worldwide still lack basic literacy skills, while four in ten children do not reach minimum proficiency in reading.
For AAMHP, the implications extend well beyond the classroom.
Literacy affects the capacity to understand a letter from a government agency, complete an application, read employment information, make sense of a tenancy agreement, navigate an online service, understand consent documents, follow health information and determine where to seek assistance when life becomes difficult.
Increasingly, it also affects a person's ability to distinguish reliable information from misinformation in a digital environment overflowing with advice about health, mental health and wellbeing.
AAMHP Chair Shane Warren said literacy should be understood as part of the infrastructure that enables people to exercise agency in their own lives.
“We sometimes talk about literacy as though its great achievement is simply teaching someone to read a book. Of course that matters enormously, but literacy is also about whether someone can participate with confidence in the world around them. Can I understand the information being given to me? Can I ask questions? Can I find the service I need? Can I understand my choices? Can I advocate for myself or for somebody I care about? Those are not small questions. They reach directly into dignity, independence, social inclusion and mental wellbeing.” [Shane Warren]
The significance of this year's International Literacy Day is particularly timely in Australia. On 1 September, the Australian Government launched the country's first National Health Literacy Framework, establishing a coordinated national approach to helping people find, understand and use trustworthy health information and services.
Importantly, the Framework recognises that health literacy is not simply an individual's responsibility. Governments, health services, practitioners and community organisations also carry responsibility for ensuring that information and services are understandable, accessible and usable.
That principle has significant implications for mental-health practice.
AAMHP knows that a mental-health services must be understandable as well as available.
A service can technically exist and still remain practically inaccessible.
Mental-health systems frequently require people to navigate referral pathways, eligibility criteria, diagnostic terminology, consent processes, funding arrangements, websites, forms and professional language at precisely the time they may be distressed, overwhelmed, exhausted or struggling to concentrate.
A person experiencing anxiety, grief, trauma, depression, family breakdown, financial pressure or psychological crisis should not first have to become an expert in the architecture of the mental-health system before they can receive help.
This is where literacy and health literacy intersect with genuine accessibility.
The World Health Organization describes health literacy as people's capacity to access, understand, appraise and use information and services in ways that support health and wellbeing. WHO also emphasises that responsibility does not rest solely with the person seeking care; organisations and systems must communicate information in ways people can meaningfully understand and act upon.
For mental-health practitioners, this calls for more than removing jargon from a brochure.
It requires us to consider whether clients genuinely understand what is being discussed with them; whether consent processes are meaningful rather than procedural; whether treatment or support options have been explained clearly; whether cultural and language differences are being accommodated; and whether the person sitting in front of us feels sufficiently safe to say, “I don't understand.”
Shane Warren said practitioners should never mistake difficulty understanding professional language for a lack of intelligence or motivation.
“One of the easiest mistakes professionals can make is assuming that because something is obvious to us, it must be obvious to the person seeking our help. Every profession develops its own vocabulary, acronyms and ways of speaking. The responsibility sits with us to communicate clearly, not with the client to learn our language before they are entitled to participate.” [Shane Warren]
“Good practice means creating enough psychological safety for somebody to say, ‘Can you explain that differently?’ without feeling embarrassed, judged or somehow less capable.” [Shane Warren]
Literacy, shame and psychological safety
There is also a profoundly human dimension to literacy that statistics alone can miss.
Adults experiencing difficulties with reading or written communication may become highly skilled at concealing those difficulties. Some avoid forms. Some defer decisions to others. Some stop asking questions. Others withdraw from services or situations where they fear their difficulties may be exposed.
Behind that behaviour can sit embarrassment, anxiety and shame.
The mental-health and community-services workforce therefore has an important role in ensuring that accessing assistance does not become another experience in which a person feels tested, diminished or excluded.
AAMHP believes services should increasingly provide information through multiple formats, use clear and accessible language, accommodate different communication needs and recognise that literacy, language, disability, culture, education and digital access can all influence how confidently people navigate health systems.
This is not about “dumbing down” information. It is about communicating well. Clear communication respects the intelligence of the person receiving it while removing unnecessary barriers to understanding.
Literacy in the age of algorithms
The meaning of literacy is also changing.
Being literate in 2026 increasingly involves navigating digital platforms, social media, search engines, artificial intelligence and an almost limitless volume of health and mental-health information.
The ability to read information is no longer enough. People must increasingly make judgements about where information came from, whether claims are credible, what evidence supports them, whether content is advertising disguised as advice, and whether an online personality has appropriate qualifications to be making a particular claim.
Australia's new National Health Literacy Framework specifically recognises the increasing importance of this challenge as Australians encounter health information through social media, online resources and artificial intelligence.
For mental-health practitioners, strengthening literacy therefore includes supporting people to become thoughtful consumers of information rather than passive recipients of whatever appears first in a search result or social-media feed.
Every word learned can open a door but the door must also be accessible
International Literacy Day rightly celebrates the transformative power of education and lifelong learning. But it should also challenge institutions, practitioners and policymakers to examine the systems we have created.
It is not enough to tell people that information exists.
We must ask whether they can find it.
It is not enough to provide a service.
We must ask whether people understand how to enter it.
It is not enough to obtain a signature on a consent form.
We must ask whether genuine understanding has occurred.
And it is not enough to promote mental-health awareness if the language, pathways and systems surrounding care remain unnecessarily difficult to navigate.
Sixty years after the first International Literacy Day, literacy continues to open worlds.
Our responsibility is to make sure those worlds include access to care, participation, opportunity, dignity and the confidence to make informed choices about one's own life.
Because literacy does more than help people read the world. It helps people find their place within it.
About International Literacy Day
International Literacy Day has been observed globally since 1967 following its proclamation by UNESCO in 1966. The 2026 observance marks its 60th anniversary and carries the theme “Literacy for people, the planet and prosperity.”
Media Contact:
Shane Warren, Chair
Susan Sandy, Secretary
Philip Armstrong, CEO
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