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How can occupational therapists help me improve my health literacy?
Occupational therapists (OTs) are trained to help people live healthy lives. OTs understand how people interact with the world around them to find health information, make health decisions, and develop healthy habits. With this understanding, OTs can teach people skills to find and use health information. They also know how to make health information easier to understand.
Six ways occupational therapists can integrate health literacy into their practice (Levassaur & Carrier, 2011):
1. Be informed about health literacy and recognize it.
2. Standardize practice to health literacy.
3. Consider health literacy by making information accessible.
4. Strengthen interactions.
5. Intervene to crease clients’ health literacy.
6. Collaborate to increase clients’ health literacy.
Read an article to learn more about health literacy in occupational therapy practice.
Read the American Occupational Therapy Association’s societal statement on health literacy.
References:
Glassman, P. (2011). Health literacy. National Network of Libraries of Medicine. Retrieved from http://nnlm.gov/outreach/consumer/hlthlit.html
The Harvard School of Public Health: Health Literacy Studies Web Site. Available at: http:www.hsph.harvard.edu/healthliteracy. Accessed Sept. 19, 2011.
Levasseur, M. & Carrier, A. (2011). Integrating health literacy into occupational therapy: Findings from a scoping review. Scandinavian Journal of Occupational Therapy, Early Online, 1-10. doi:10.3109/11038128.2011.588724
Smith, D. L., & Gutman, S. A. (2011). Health literacy in occupational therapy practice and research. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 65,367-369. doi: 10.5014/ajot.2011.002139
Images:
[Family Biking] http://newwayfitness.com/PARSforAdults.html
[Healthy Food] http://alldietsreview.com/following-this-list-of-healthy-food-will-allow-your-body-to-perform-at-optimal-strength.html
[Woman Exercising] http://healthwise-everythinghealth.blogspot.com/2010/06/weight-loss-from-activity-only-works-in.html
[Doctor and Child] http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Health/Pages/CDC-reports-life-expectancy-spike-due-to-decrease-in-deaths-Scrape-TV-The-World-on-your-side.html
[OT and Patient] http://medxpresstaffing.com/career-opportunities
[Pills] http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jun/24/combined-side-effects-medicine