Welcome
The Discipline of Public Health is part of the Medical School of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Flinders University. We aim to promote health and healthy environments in Australia and overseas by advocating for and advancing multi-disciplinary public health research, teaching and practice.
We are committed to local and global action to address the social factors leading to ill health and health inequities. We aim to play our part in drawing the attention of society to the social determinants of health that are known to be among the worst causes of poor health and inequalities between and within countries. The determinants include unemployment, unsafe workplaces, urban slums, globalization and inequities in access to health care services and systems.
We have experience as researchers and practitioners in a variety of health arenas and primary health care roles. We also hark from a range of disciplines including sociology, epidemiology, human geography, cultural anthropology, nutrition and psychology and this is perhaps our greatest strength. This also makes our classes engaging, lively and in-fitting with contemporary policy and theory.
We are a group of highly committed academic and administrative staff who are justly proud of our award winning program of Graduate Certificates in Public Health and Primary Health Care. We began teaching this program in 1989 and since then have regularly reviewed and revised our topics, procedures and processes so that we can provide students with state-of-the-art ideas relevant to the theory and practice of public health.
We share a vision of health that unites our teaching, research and professional practice. This vision, first articulated in the WHO 'Health For All' statement, emphasises the importance of front line workers who are able to foster, promote and protect health and well-being; recognise and reduce disease and disability; reduce health inequalities; and improve access to services. These foci are also central to contemporary global agreements such as the Jakarta Declaration and the Bangkok Charter for Health Promotion. In addition, in Australia, the National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission recommended a key reform goal as "Tackling major access and equity issues that affect health outcomes for people now", which is also supported by the Council of Australian Governments. Our aim is to equip students with knowledge and skills to enable them to work towards these important goals and policy recommendations.
We are affiliated with or are members of several professional associations.
