What a neat take on occupational therapy! Health literacy is something I have never even considered. This is why I love our classes. All of them! As a future therapist I might think of something such as helping the client find different ways of transporting to the doctor to get a prescription prescribed. However I love how occupational therapy goes even deeper than that. Our job might start there, but directly after that it is our duty to make sure they understand why they are taking it, what they are taking, how many they are taking, and what time of the day to take it. T
The question then crossed my mind in class as we watched the videos on health literacy, "Do people graduate elementary, middle and high school without being taught to read?" Then it hit me. Not only are there individuals that might be my age that can not read for many different reasons, but we also will meet other client's that may not have been born here, having a language barrier or maybe a focus on education and reading in their country still is not as important as our culture. Some of our clients may have been from my grandparent's generation. It is not uncommon in their day and age to never graduate school or develop their reading skills fully. Many might also ask how is this possible? Times were different 50 years ago. Farm hands had children often to help them work the field, including during school hours. Just because school was in session did not mean that the garden would still not be growing! Grocery store's were smaller and often family run. Having such a strong focus on academia or even basic education was not terribly important when my grandparent's were in grade school, resulting in an aging population that does not have the ability to read medicine, food labels, etc.
So as always I left class today thinking, "Man Lauren, you must start thinking big, creative, and generationally as a I move forward as a therapist to provide the highest quality of care I can possibly do".
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