Health Promotion, Literacy, and Prevention

I was excited when I learned that this lecture was going to be a part of the curriculum for this class! I took epidemiology in undergrad and found myself very interested in the topic and now I am even more interested that I can also apply it to my future career. Though this was a refresher lecture for me, in terms of OT application, the section on health literacy stood out the most. I think that being able to obtain, process, understand, deliver, and communicate basic health information is key to being a practitioner. I have encountered plenty doctors / nurses / health care providers that do not practice this way of thinking, and honestly it made me discouraged and wanted to frown upon health care providers.

For example, in the winter of 2015 my grandpa was diagnosed with lung cancer and was back and forth from hospitals, cancer treatment centers, etc. When I came home for Christmas break, I was responsible for taking my grandpa back and forth to his doctor visits while my parents were at work - meaning I was also responsible for interpreting information back and forth from my grandpa and the doctor, and the doctor to the rest of my family. (Keep in mind, I am also one of the few people in my family that has any medical background). There was one point in time that had I not have been there my grandpa would have undergone an extensive and crucial round of chemotherapy AFTER he had already told all the nurses and doctors that he did not want treatment. This ultimately happened for three reasons: 1) lack of information provided to my grandpa, 2) medical terminology was used instead of basic language, 3) lack of communication between health care providers in the same facility.

Because of encounters like this, other health care providers mistakes make me want to be a better practitioner. We, as OT's, need to know and embrace the fact that the majority of our clients are going to have the minimum amount of knowledge about what we do, why they are seeing us, and basic information on health benefits. It's almost pointless to deliver services to these clients without it being purposeful. And for it to be purposeful, they need to have a basic understanding and that is our job description as well.