Public Health

     In class today, we talked about public health. One thing that I learned about was health literacy. Health literacy is the degree to which someone has the capacity to obtain, process, and understand health information in order to make health decisions. We watched a couple of videos on the subject that really showed how many times people do not understand what a health provider is saying to them and a lot of times they will not ask questions. In one of the videos, a woman talked about how she ended up having a hysterectomy without even realizing that that was what she was agreeing to. I learned that making sure clients and patients understand what is being said and given to them by a health professional is very important and that it should be improved in our culture.
    Another thing I learned today was about the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Triple AIM. It was interesting to learn about because it discusses how all health professions need to start focusing more on client-centeredness which is something occupational therapy has already put into practice. They want to do this through improving the patient experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing per capita cost of health care.