Health Literacy

Health literacy is the ability to read, comprehend, obtain and use health care information in order to make appropriate decisions and follow treatment instructions. It is so important to know how to talk to your clients to make them understand everything clearly. I know for me personally, I hate it when doctors talk to me with words or information that I do not understand. As future OT practitioners, our goal should be to provide the best type of treatment for a client to improve their daily living, but it should be done in a way they can understand. We want clients to leave a treatment session feeling confident in what they did and not confused about what you were asking them to do. It is important to know everything you can about the treatment you are giving, but it is equally as important to make sure the client understands as well in a way that makes since to them.
It is so important to promote health to everyone so that people know how to live a healthy life. You can be healthy by eating right, exercising, not smoking, get all your immunization shots, going to the doctor when you feel sick and being active daily. It is important that health care workers not only practice good health habits, but promote ways to be healthy. Everyone deserves the option to be healthy, but it is our responsibility to promote how you can be healthy. When you treat clients, you need to promote health as much as possible. Some may want to know ways to be healthy so they don't injure themselves again. I believe that it is important for OT practitioners to promote health during intervention plans. You should want the client to maintain a healthy lifestyle while they receive treatment. Some ways to promote health is to give a client healthy meal plans, tell them to take a walk each day for at least thirty minutes if they are able to, refer them to doctors that will help them, ensure that they have a stable home environment, and many more things like those examples. Overall, I learned that health literacy is so important because we want understand how to treat clients in the best possible way but to make sure they know what is happening as well. It is also so so so important to promote health. Our society is the unhealthiest it has ever been and as health care providers, we need to do our part to educate our clients so that they can better themselves and have a long healthy life.