Understanding The Determinants Of Health

“Nearly 5 million children in the U.S. have some type of mental illness” (Goldberg). It is agreeable that there are many young children that deal with mental illness every day. Schools should be concerned for every student’s well being. Moreover, mental health is a part of a person’s overall “well being.” Therefore, schools need to make the mental health of students a stronger focus and implement plans to keep students mentally well and educated. To help create a positive, mental health aware environment where students feel open to seek help, high school students should be educated on how to be mentally healthy, be given a safe place to seek help, and be encouraged to monitor and maintain their mental health. Mental illness and mental health care need to be a more eminent priority in our society, starting with high schools.

Health literacy has been demarcated as the measurement of the individual’s capacity to obtain, understand and process simple health information. It is needed to make satisfactory health decisions and determine services needed to treat or prevent illness. Health literacy requires knowledge from many topics, comprising the patient’s own body, appropriate conducts towards healthy results and the difficulties to understand the health system. It is influenced by many conditions such as our communication skills, age, socio-economic status, and cultural background, past experiences, educational level and mental health status (U.S. Department of

The role of preventing mental health from a younger age is important because according to Beyond Blue Youth, “Evidence suggests three in four adult mental health conditions emerge by age 24 and half by age 14.” This is terrible, we should focus on decreasing this so it doesn’t lead to a bigger suicide rate. In 2012 Beyond Blue Youth states, “Suicide is the biggest killer of young Australians and accounts for the deaths of more young people than car accidents.” Preventing mental health from a younger age will not only decrease the suicide rate but how many adults have a mental health issues will decrease. As the conditions won’t emerge before the age of 24, giving the younger generations more chance to not have a mental issue in their adult lives.

A big problem today in health care for many people is health literacy. Health literacy is when a person is able to understand and process medical information they are given. Having low health literacy can affect how a person understands, and uses information about their health and health services (Batterham 2016). Low health literacy rates lead to big issues in communication. Limited literacy impacts health behaviors, decisions, and ultimately outcomes. Many people have low health literacy which leads to bad health outcomes. Research shows that low literacy is linked with the lower likelihood of people being able to manage their own health conditions, and less access to health care services which can lead to poor health outcomes. There are many reasons people have low health literacy, A lack of formal education and poor reading ability aren't the only causes of low health literacy. Low health literacy is associated with a number of things like poor engagement in health services, health knowledge, and overall health status. People with low health literacy may feel ashamed and try to hide it from professionals and family members. Most health care professionals are unaware of the level of health literacy their patient has. (Greenhalgh 2015) There is a need to identify individual health literacy needs and address how to work on solutions to benefit them and whole groups of people. Differences in health literacy

Mental illnesses are very common in the United States, with one in five of adolescents having a diagnosed mental illness and in the last year less than half of these adolescents have received proper treatment. The most common mental disorders, anxiety and depression, can disrupt daily life and result in suicide, which is the third most frequent cause of death in teenagers (“The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services”). Ten percent of adolescents did not have health insurance in 2013 and those who did, had a very limited amount of mental health care services provided to them (“The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services”). It has been proved that it is even less likely that adolescents who are poor, homeless, gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender will receive the care that is necessary for their health and even life (“The Office of Adolescent Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services”). Mental disorders are not only an

“Health Literacy” a term to define literacy in healthcare. “An estimated 90 million people in the U.S. have difficulties understanding and using health information” (Hawkins, Kantayya and Sharkey-Asner, 2010). Low health literacy poses public health risks due to groups of people not being able to adequately care for themselves and stay healthy. This paper argues the importance of literacy as it pertains to health and also explores the various types of literacy that can impact how health information is received and understood from the general public.

Having a healthy population is becoming increasingly important across Australian communities (Baur, 2011). Health literacy is the cognitive and social skills, which enables and establishes the ability of individuals to gain access and comprehend the use of information, in ways that maintain and promote good

Factors that influence ones health status is known as determinants of health. The determinants of health include a range of social, personal, economics and environment factors. First the social aspect that includes the availability to resources to meet your daily needs and includes access to jobs, education, and health care services. Second the physical aspects that include the natural environment, neighborhoods, schools and exposures to hazardous substances. The one that I see every day being in the health care is the availability of health services. The barriers of health care being high cost, lack of availability and insurance coverage. I just recently started an education program at my hospital for Chronic Obstruction Pulmonary Disease,

Health literacy is both a consumer and public healthcare issue. As a health care provider, it is not only my responsibility to ensure that you understand your health and what is going on

Therefore, health literacy signifies more than being competent in reading pamphlets and making appointments. Current literature suggests health literacy as a personal resource has promise to be “developed as part of lifelong formal and informal learning process” from participation in occupations regardless of the individual’s age or formal level of education (Wister, Malloy-Weir, Rootman, & Desjardins, 2010). Increasing access to health information is critical to advancing health literacy so that health care providers may improve and empower the general public’s ability to comprehend medical encounters (Nutbeam, 1998).

For health communication to be successful, there must be an understanding of the intended audience's needs and perceptions. The authors further recognized culture being passed down from generation to generation. Consequently, with this in mind addressing the health literacy of older adults within any cultural or ethnic group, requires the ability to reach across the age barriers and provide education at a level adjusted for individual understanding.

The World Health Organization defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” and that the “enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.” (World Health Organization. 2006)

Lack of mental health literacy has been a rising problem in society as the prevalence of psychiatric disorders have increased. Heath literacy has helped people with physical health problems to get treatment and support that they need. It is important for people with mental health problems to have this support as well. The article, “Mental Health Literacy” by A.F. Jorn is about the issues that many societies today face when it comes to people understanding mental health.

According to the most recent study of national literacy, the results showed that 29% of Americans have below basic ability and 14% have the basic ability to read writing. In addition, it also showed that many of those that took the survey that had an associate’s or bachelor degrees had below the basic level in health literacy. Low health literacy within patients creates a barrier in the comprehension of their treatment and with their health care provider/nurse. What is health literacy? Health literacy is the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions (Polifko-Harris, 2011). As nurses, we want to provide the best quality and safest care to our patients. As part of our nursing ethics that we protect our patients and our job to ensure patients understand the education they receive when it comes to their treatment by using the “teach back” method to ensure safe care and receive better outcomes.

In the modern healthcare environment, the patient is more involved than ever with the healthcare process. An important part of this involvement is health literacy. Health literacy can be defined as “the degree to which individuals can obtain, process, and understand the basic health information and services they need to make appropriate health decisions”1 by the Institute of Medicine in their 2004 report titled Health Literacy: A prescription to End Confusion. 2 Health literacy is a wide variety of skills and knowledge which are required to be able to effectively understand, communicate, and it is required to aptly use health care information. The aforementioned health literacy skills include the ability to read and comprehend written information, find and interpret data, the ability to use quantitative information and the capability to speak and listen.2Others may include the ability to have a working knowledge of some disease processes, however this point may be up for contention.