Dr. Flick Lecture

I really enjoyed Dr. Flick's lecture on health promotion and literacy, as it really correlated with what is being discussed in the Serving the Underserving class that I am taking at the time. I especially liked the topic of occupational apartheids because this is a topic that was very overlooked here in Memphis in the 1960s. At the time, predominantly white housewives were able to stop I40 from going through the middle of Overton Park, while the less fortunate communities around Martin Luther King Riverside Park were unable to stop I55 from doing the same to their park. This shows that certain communities can be deprived of meaningful and purposeful activities through segregation stemming from social, political, and economic factors.

Another topic that I found really interesting was the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) Triple Aim. The triple aim focus includes improving the patient experience of care, improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita cost of healthcare. This is especially important right now because the United States is ranked less than 20th in the world for health care quality, access, efficiency, and equity. This mission could include broadening the role of primary care and other community-based services, implementing more non-profits to steer away from the medical model of care, and empowering individuals and families. Occupational therapy is a profession that aligns heavily with the triple aim, because of its focus on holistic practice, its push to include more community-based services, as well as being named the only profession that made a difference in readmission rates in acute care and hospital settings.