Levels of Prevention and Health Literacy

Public health is not really my stronghold, probably because I don’t know much about it and all that it entails, but Dr. Flick explained and clarified some terms that are good to know especially because they are so pertinent to occupational therapy and the types of interventions that we determine to use for clients depending on their situations. First, she explained that prevention also means intervention in our field which makes sense. I just always used prevention as part of the definition in intervention instead of using the words interchangeably. So, Dr. Flick said there are three different levels of prevention/intervention which are primary, secondary, and tertiary. The primary level of prevention is catching something before it happens whether it be a disease or a possible injury. For instance, she said that some companies have organizations in place because they know the environment is a little risky. Secondary prevention is when a disease or injury is being detected like a breast cancer screening or another big one is developmental screenings for young children. Finally, tertiary prevention is when something has already happened like a stroke or some kind of traumatic injury or impactful disease. At this point, we would just be there to improve their quality of life by preventing long term effects from whatever medical devastation that has happened to them like preventing falls, or contractures, etc. I feel like I somehow knew this information but did not know the terms that were linked with them, so I feel as though I know the information better now that I have listened to Dr. Flick’s lecture. Also, she explained health literacy is dependent on several things. Not only does it mean to have a good understanding of basic health information needed to make appropriate decisions, but it is dependent on the way we communicate, cultural relativity of our clients, and their situational contexts.