Not Everyone Understands Health Lingo

Today we talked about something called health literacy. By definition, it refers to the degree to which individuals that the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions. To me this speaks volumes. It is something that makes sense when you think about it, but the problem is that health care providers don't always think about it. Health literacy could refer to someone not having an appropriate reading level to fill out medical forms to someone who just simply doesn't have their glasses with them so they may not be able to see the form, but maybe they are afraid to speak up and inform the healthcare provider. As healthcare providers, there are ways that we can help these clients gain the knowledge they need to understand about the situation at hand. We need to be cautious of the words we use and we need to make sure that we check for adequate understanding when communicating with clients. We also talked about occupational alienation which is experience devoid of meaning or purpose, a sense of isolation, and powerlessness, frustration, loss of control, or estrangement from society or self that results from engagement in occupations that do not satisfy inner needs related to meaning or purpose. So in everyday terms this is a term that refers to isolating an individual based on a disability or social issue they may have. This can be a problem for the society as a whole and the individual, and can also reflect badly on the society, in my opinion.