For my second post I will be talking about health as well as
mentioning a few theories promoting health. Health can be defined in many different
ways, one being “the complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being
and not just the absence of disease or infirmity.” The promotion of health is
the use of discipline specific techniques to assist people in achieving their
health related goals. Occupational therapy directed health promotion is the
client centered use of occupations, adaptations to context, or alteration of
context to maximize individuals’, families’, communities’, and groups’ pursuit
of health and quality of life. Health promotion is a process of maximizing
health through structured interventions. Before an appropriate theory can be
selected for a health promotion initiative, a clear understanding of the health
and occupation needs and desires of those being served is required. One of the
first and most widely used models in health promotion is called the Health
Belief Model (HBM). The basis of this model is the balancing of threats with
barriers of taking the recommended action and the potential benefits. A key
component to this model is self-efficacy. Another model is the Social Cognitive
Theory (SCT). The SCT is a model that is a good fit for occupational therapy
health promotion program development and evaluation due to its emphasis on “how”
to change behavior, the importance placed on self-efficacy, and mastery gained
through doing. This type of approach promotes effective self-management of
health habits that keep people healthy through their lifespan.
I believe that the OTPF not only guides OT practice, but helps us establish exactly what we practice as well. We are able to determine our evaluation and intervention plans along with determining the best fit outcomes for each individual client. It is also beneficial for bringing occupational therapy and those who practice it out in the open for the public eye to better understand what we do.
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