So how do you define social determinants of health? To me it is when your "social status" affects your health in a way that might not be completely in your control. Yes we can all go outside and walk for 15 minutes everyday. But that becomes challenging when your town doesn't have safe sidewalks or even a small park. Or what if you simply live in an area with a bunch of factories and there air filter system isn't very efficient or what if you don't have proper plumbing on a trip to a third world country? I took a trip to London when I was in high school with my mom and the air is so polluted there that our mucus turned black. Social determinant of health automatically put your health at a disadvantage without you even doing anything.
This related to your nervous system in a few ways. When I blew my nose in London and saw black snot... It kind of freaked me out. I remember thinking pretty often that this is what was going into my lungs and inside my body, but I couldn't do anything about it. The TED Talk we listened to started off with a doctor talking about one his patients in the past. She suffered from migraines. None of her previous doctors could come up with a solution to her problem but he figured out that her home had mold, a water leak and rats. Her poor living conditions were causing her health problem. She took action and had her landlord fix her home and bam, recovered.
The UTHSC OT program requires us to have a certain amount of service/ professional development hours during our time as student's here. I think this is an excellent way to go ahead and get upcoming
OT's in a mindset of helping the community in different/creative ways. To go ahead and form good habits of observing our community and finding ways to improve it as we grow within ourselves and as a whole.
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