Social Determinants of Health

I watched a Ted Talk by Rishi Manchanda who spoke about social determinants of health (SDoH), and how this knowledge can change lives in healthcare. Well, what are social determinants of health you may ask? These are everyday factors that can impact your health such as where you live, where you work, accessibility to resources, and transportation to and from these places. Not only that, but more specifically the conditions in which someone surrounds themselves in whether it have to do with living, working, education, economic status, or leisure. These factors or determinants if you will, can all play a role in a person’s health, or expected health behaviors, a big role actually. Because social determinants are so influential to a person’s health, you can believe that it can impact one’s nervous system and overall being. Take stress for instance. We can experience stress at any age depending on someone’s circumstances, especially a child who grows up in an abusive home, or maybe just a low economic status and lacks simple resources that are beneficial to their well-being. Stress can affect your whole body, most importantly your brain. When a person is stressed, they are most likely feeling an overload of emotions. But when a kid who lives in a home or is in an environment that is constantly stimulated by the same stress because of some type of instability or lack of necessities (love, food, clothes, stability, consistency, etc.) that can and will play a role in their emotional states, and behaviors which in turn affects their nervous system. For example, stress is can have an effect on decreasing gray matter in the prefrontal cortex, which is a region of the brain linked to such things as self-control and emotions. This is just one example of many.

Lastly, UTHSC’s OT program requires so many hours of service and professional development hours and I think this helps prepare us OT students for the future in our profession because it is teaching us early on the skills necessary to become outstanding OT practitioners. It teaches us to take responsibility and pride in our work and I think most importantly becoming independent in self-awareness and self-motivation in anything that we do. I am extremely thankful to be in a program that is not only concerned about our education, but also the necessary skills for when we interact with coworkers and clients.