According to the World Health Organization, health is defined as a condition of a comprehensive mental, social and physical safety and not simply the nonexistence of an illness or ailment. The definition of health according to World Health Organization relates to occupational therapy because it is founded on the engagement in significant actions of everyday life in order to inspire the involvement of individuals in various doings in spite of limitations in the physical and mental working. Besides, according to the World Health Organization, health promotion is defined as the process of allowing individuals to enhance regulation over their well-being and its determining factor thus improving their general healthiness. The definition of health promotion according to World Health Organization relates to occupational therapy because it is concerned with upholding wellbeing and safety through occupation (Fahim, & Abdallah, 2018).
Social injustice affects health and wellness because it decreases life expectancy. Social injustices such as poverty, poor education, bad housing and the inability to curb junk food that causes obesity have been known to cause poor health outcomes such as deaths. Therefore, reducing health inequalities will help in narrowing down the gap in life expectancy and infant mortality between the rich and the poor.
Occupational deprivation affects health and wellness because the occupation has an important influence on the safety of individuals. For instance, when the health needs of individuals are not met or denied they tend to be affected and this reflects on the general well-being. Additionally, occupational therapy services affect health and wellness because they focus on encouraging individuals to take part in various activities of daily life that are only significant and meaningful to them (Braveman, 2016). For instance, occupational therapy practitioners encourage their clients to uphold and improve healthy lifestyles to be able to have healthy lives and improve their recovery in case of an injury.
- Braveman, B. (2016). Population health and occupational therapy. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 70(1), 7001090010p1-7001090010p6.
- Fahim, A., & Abdallah, A. (2018). 1614 Occupational health promotion, safety and wellbeing: a sustainability perspective.
