Occupational Therapy and Healthcare Disparities in Underserved Groups

This essay addresses the healthcare disparities experienced by underserved groups, with a specific focus on the challenges posed by Limited English Proficiency (LEP). It highlights the difficulties faced by LEP individuals in accessing and navigating the healthcare system, including reduced health status, lower rates of disease prevention, medication complications, and poor communication with healthcare providers. The essay emphasizes the impact of these challenges on occupational performance and overall well-being. It underscores the importance of providing learning opportunities, ensuring equal treatment, and fostering inclusive environments to enable underserved groups to thrive and actively participate in various occupations. The essay references key studies that support the arguments presented, such as the impact of professional interpreters on hospital readmission rates and the role of occupational therapy in healthcare.

Running head: Underserved groups 1
Underserved groups
Name of student
Institution
Date

Underserved groups 2
About 20% of adults in America speaks another language apart from English at home (Karliner,
Pérez-Stable, & Gregorich, 2017). This poses a great difficulty in the health sector since they
face disparities that are not faced by English-speaking persons. Some of the problems that are
seen in the health sector due to the Limited English Profency (LEP) are reduced health status,
reduced chances of having basic healthcare, decreased rate of prevention of diseases and
infections, higher chances of using diagnosed tests, risk of complications of drugs, low
satisfaction of patients, poor health outcomes, reduced follow up visits, low quality care, and
lack of effective communication between patients and healthcare providers, therefore, affecting
the understanding of medication (Killian, Fisher, & Muir, 2015).
People with LEP are usually taken advantage of by their employers since they are unable to
communicate efficiently and fight for their rights. They are often paid low wages that cannot
satisfy them and their families. These people often have a hard time understanding instructions
being given and also take more time during training. These challenges affect their overall
occupational performance, and they are unable to reap maximumly from the seminars and
training thus productivity goes down. Due to this fact, they easily lose their jobs since their
employers are unable to sustain them as they are assumed to be doing nothing. They later
become jobless and financially unstable.
With time, people with LEP, together with the underserved group, can learn. They should,
therefore, be given learning opportunities for them to understand everything fully. They should
also be treated equaly for them to fit in different occupations easily and without discrimination
from anyone and that way, people can live together in harmony.

Underserved groups 3
References
Karliner, L. S., Pérez-Stable, E. J., & Gregorich, S. E. (2017). Convenient Access to
Professional Interpreters in the Hospital Decreases Readmission Rates and Estimated
Hospital Expenditures for Patients With Limited English Proficiency. Medical
Care, 55(3), 199-206. doi:10.1097/mlr.0000000000000643
Killian, C., Fisher, G., & Muir, S. (2015). Primary Care: A New Context for the Scholarship of
Practice Model. Occupational Therapy In Health Care, 29(4), 383-396.
doi:10.3109/07380577.2015.1050713