Health Literacy in Occupational Therapy

Health literacy is a vital part of the outcome of a client's overall health. It may seem obvious that one's ability to access, understand, and implement intervention into their lives will affect their health, but the not-so-obvious part of health literacy is accurately gauging an individual's ability to understand the information surrounding their health. It is important that practitioners and clinicians take several steps to ensure that their patients and clients understand exactly what is necessary to improve their health. Professor Flick shared that what is performed in a hospital or treatment facility only contributes a very small impact on one's overall health, and a huge impact comes from the client's determinants of health such as genetics, behavior, socio-economic status, education, and health services. It is important as practitioners to try to understand a client's situation as best as you can. In the podcast with Dr. Will Ross, he emphasizes the importance of empathy when working with individuals in a healthcare setting. You need to understand that there may be many factors as to why your client is not taking their medicine correctly or performing at-home exercises to support their intervention. The client may not be non-compliant but instead not properly informed on their health and how to improve it. 

When prescribing intervention methods, it is important to put yourself on your client's level. This means presenting the information in a way that best suits the client. Determining the client's ability to understand this information can be difficult for a practitioner, so it is best to be sensitive when making this judgement. Many clients may be insecure about their education on their health and may not openly voice their misunderstandings. Professor Flick shared a video that mentioned the importance of searching for clues in clients. If the client seems forgetful about their health, has a hard time filling out paper, or regularly misses appointments, they may not have proper access to resources imperative to their health or situation. As a practitioner, I will take this understanding into consideration and make accommodations to ensure that my clients are educated. I will make it a priority to make sure that my clients understand their health status as best as I can and find resources to educate them if I am unable to do so with my knowledge and experience. I will use several methods for educating my clients on their health interventions such as providing demonstrations with exercises and activities and have them "teach me" to show that they understand. I will find ways to provide pictures or videos of exercises to my clients and also use simple terms when educating them. It is vital that healthcare providers promote health and health literacy in effective ways for each individual client.