Health Equity and Literacy

Today in our foundations course, the goal of the lecture was to discuss the importance of health equity and literacy, and how we as occupational therapists play a role in both of those factors. As part of our preparatory work, we were to listen to a podcast from Dr. Will Ross, a native Memphian who came to UTHSC to give a lecture. I was fortunate enough to both attend his lecture, and listen to his podcast which were both extremely informative. His goal in both was to share his experience both as a patient and as a doctor and to share the importance of social justice in the field of healthcare. I think this was extremely eye opening to me to see that even though we have made progress in trying to make the field more accessible to all people, we still have a long way to go in truly having equality for all people in healthcare. This is especially important for OTs, because some of our fundamental principles are equality and social justice, so we must work to promote these ideals throughout the healthcare field. Though both of his talks were specifically geared towards medicine, they can definitely be applied to the field of OT as well.

One specific way we talked about in class that would make our field more accessible to all people is promoting health literacy. The clients that we work with will often come from all backgrounds, walks of life, and cultures. This means that the way they understand the healthcare system can be completely different from the way that we and others we know do, and it is our job to make sure that they are still able to have the same quality of care and understanding as others. It means making sure that our language is clear and understandable to each client, and that our terms are not too technical. It also means making sure that they know what our role is and why they are having sessions with us so that they are able to make decisions on their care. Doing these things is not only client-centered, but could also lead to better outcomes for them, because the more that they understand and feel involved and valued, the more likely they are to invest in their treatment. These are just some simple yet important ways that we can open up the field of OT and the healthcare world to all people.