Health promotion is the essential element of any medical system; it is a set of effective measures that develops awareness about health issues, including violence, depression, substance abuse, and nutrition. Health promotion serves the link between various types of medical procedures, and forms a vision of health, prevention, and wellness as applied to any types of clinical setting. In physical therapy practice, health promotion is the fundamental component of the patient’s behavioral change that prepares the patient towards health improvement.
Health promotion helps identify the most important health-related issues, which may prevent the patient from achieving the anticipated treatment outcomes. For me, the course has become a revelation. It has revealed the hidden facets of our health system and has identified the major pitfalls of the current medical approaches towards physical therapy. Substance abuse, depression, and violence are only some out of many problems which are usually neglected by physical therapy professionals, but which may also prevent the patient from becoming physically and morally healthy.
For example, Coker et al (2001) writes that violence may be displayed in a variety of forms, and visible signs of violence may determine the severity of other health complications. In physical therapy practice, substance abuse screening should be a compulsory procedure; professionals should bear in mind that the use of illicit drugs may substantially worsen the patient’s health condition.
The problems are similar with violence and depression screening: depression remains one of the leading causes of human mortality in the world, and is expected to become the second leading contributor to human disease and mortality burden by 2020 (Kerr & Kerr, 2001). Physical therapy specialists should develop and implement a set of depression screening instruments, because depression is a serious health condition, and screening is one of the most cost-effective methods for identifying the symptoms of depression.
In addition, physical therapy will hardly be effective if medical specialists fail to identify nutrition issues in patients (Healing with Nutrition, 2008). The current course has opened unlimited opportunities for learning, understanding, and implementing various health promotion approaches in physical therapy practice. Better understanding of the signs and symptoms of the “hidden health issues” (depression, violence, substance abuse, etc. ) lead to the development of more effective physical therapy measures.
The elements of Women’s Experience with Battering Scale (WEB) for violence screening, self-reporting instruments for screening depression, the signs of substance abuse, and misbalanced nutrition will be integrated into one short questionnaire. Before assigning the patient to the specific physical therapy course, medical professionals will need to perform preliminary analysis, and to determine whether the patient displays the signs of other health-related problems that may hinder effective treatment.
Medical professionals will need extra time to develop and implement a new system of preliminary analysis, but in the long-term period the new system will save substantial costs. Medical approaches towards physical therapy will become more systemic; physicians will not have to interrupt physical therapy courses with the need to address other health-related (and previously unidentified) issues. The development of such questionnaire poses one significant challenge: there is no guarantee that patients will be sincere and honest writing down their responses.
As a result, the development and implementation of such questionnaire does not relieve physical therapy professionals of their obligations to use other appropriate methods for identifying the signs of violence, substance abuse, depression and nutrition problems. Conclusion Physical therapy and health promotion are integrally linked. Numerous factors determine the success of medical treatment; in physical therapy practice, health promotion principles can be effectively utilized to analyze patient behaviors, and to determine whether the patients are prepared for changing their approaches to health and lifestyle.
Health promotion instruments help identify possible issues that may prevent patients from addressing negative health conditions. The set of effective theoretical and practical approaches opens the gateway to understanding the principles of patient health behavior. The knowledge of health promotion principles helps re-direct patient behavior, to make it serve patient’s needs.
References
Coker, A. L. , Pope, B. O. , Smith, P. H. & Sanderson, M. (2001). Assessment for clinical partner violence screening tools. JAMWA, 56 (1).Retrieved August 5, 2008 from http://www. amwa-doc. org/index. cfm? objectid=C2CBDCEB-D567-0B25-50D44B74BDBBC160 Kerr, L. K. & Kerr, L. D. (2001). Screening tools for depression in primary care. West J Med, 175 (5). Retrieved August 5, 2008 from http://www. pubmedcentral. nih. gov/articlerender. fcgi? artid=1071624 Healing with Nutrition. (2008). Cardiovascular disease: facts, disease prevention and treatment strategies. Retrieved August 5, 2008 from http://www. healingwithnutrition. com/cdisease/cardiovascular/cardiovascular. html