PHCA1507 Introduction to Public Health

2012

4.5

1 x 1-hour lecture weekly
1 x 1-hour tutorial weekly

Assignments

This topic introduces students to public health. The topic will look at core values and principles in current public health including equity and empowerment. It will introduce students to primary health care and the history of the development of public health. This topic will look at different approaches to the social determinants of health and well being including the structural factors and conditions affecting human populations. The topic will also introduce the concept of empowerment and processes of change linked to it, considering the broad implications for change agent roles in social planning.

The aim of this topic is to enable students to have a foundation understanding of the ways in which health is understood in public health, how it came to be understood in these ways and how these ideas are currently applied in public health.

By the end of this topic, students are expected to be able to:

• Demonstrate an understanding of the historical the development of current approaches to public health

• Analyse the relationships between social determinants of health and health status

• Demonstrate a knowledge of the implications of a social determinants of health approach for action for change in social planning

• Demonstrate effective writing skills to communicate public health principles in the context of social planning.