Health Promotion

As a future occupational therapist, it is important to start looking ahead and learn about how to promote health and address health literacy. Part of AOTA's Vision 2025 is to maximize health and quality of life for all people in everyday living. Health can be seen as the complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being. People feel their best and are happiest when they are healthy. In this context, being healthy does not mean having a six-pack and running 10 miles a day. Being healthy consists of obtaining the physical and mental abilities to perform activities of daily living and able to carry out a role that relates to a person's identity. However, not many people understand the importance of health for well-being. Occupational therapists can promote health by education clients and help clients make adaptations or alterations to maximize health and quality of life.

Along with health promotion, health literacy is a huge crisis in the United States. Many times, clients see their primary care doctor (or any type of doctor) and do not understand their diagnosis. Doctors usually prescribe various medications that have complex names. Sadly, a lot of clients do not know which medications they are taking, and they do not know why they are taking certain medications. As a future health care provider, it is important to make sure clients understand diagnoses and treatment plans. Most people who do not work in the healthcare field do not understand medical terminology. To increase health literacy, health care providers can do simple things with clients like using audio-visual aids, using plain language, highlighting take-home points, and encouraging the clients to "teach back."

This picture is of Occupational Therapy Departmental Chair and current occupational therapy students currently enrolled in a course titled "Serving the Underserved." The course teaches healthcare providers how to serve clients who may not have the situational or monetary means of getting health care. It also teaches healthcare providers how to promote health and increase health literacy in less resourceful environments.