Presenter
Whitney Lucas Molitor, PhD, OTD, OTR/L, BCG
Assistant Professor and Capstone Director
University of South Dakota
Vermillion, SD
Earn: .1 AOTA CEU; (1.25 NBCOT PDU, 1 Contact Hour)
Description
According to the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework: Domain and Process, the clients of occupational therapy practitioners include person, groups and populations. Populations are described as aggregates of people with common attributes such a contexts, characteristics, or concerns, including health risks.
Working with populations is a departure from the one-on-one or group approach to client services with which many practitioners are familiar. To address the needs of populations, one must venture into systems level thinking where change to community, city, state and federal policy and resource allocation must be made to effect real and lasting change. The social determinants of health that can impact the abilities of certain populations to realize quality of life are also integral to the conversation of interventions and programs impacting populations.
This course will provide basic information regarding populations and the social determinants of health and offer suggestions for OT practitioners interested in pursuing this level of intervention.
Learning Objectives
Following this course, the learner will be able to:
· Connect the role of occupational therapy to population health
· Compare and contrast population health and public health
· Identify roles for occupational therapy based upon anticipated population health issues
· Relate social determinants of health to occupational performance, participation and health outcomes for specific populations.
· Examine how advocacy, policy and systems can influence health outcomes for populations
AOTA content: Domain (clients); Process (interventions)
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