Primary Hlth Care in Develop. Countries

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2013:

Semester 1 Dates: 26 Feb, 5, 12, 19, 23, 26 March, 2 & 9 April, 2013 (Partial Block)

Semester 2, Dates: 12 - 16 August, 2013 (Full Block)

Quota: 29

120 hours

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Students completing the following subject are not permitted to enrol in POPH90131:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Description, Subject Objectives, Generic Skills and Assessment Requirements of this entry.
The University is dedicated to provide support to those with special requirements. Further details on the disability support scheme can be found at the Disability Liaison Unit website.

This subject will cover the principles and practice of primary health care (PHC) in resource-poor settings, including: history, principles and key elements of PHC developmental contexts, community health workers and local health systems, PHC approaches to disease control, trends in international development for health, global agencies in health, PHC and local health systems, and current demographic and epidemiological trends affecting PHC. A field visit to PHC sites in Melbourne is included during Semester One.

On completing this subject, students should be able to:

• Describe the history, principles and elements of primary health care (PHC) in developing countries;
• Identify causes of poor community health in developing countries;
• Outline a range of models for making health care accessible to different sectors of the community, the approaches taken to manage health services at all levels, and how PHC is adaptable to different settings;
• Analyse a PHC management system and evaluate its likely effectiveness in coordinating health services.

Group presentation (approx 5 mins per person) (10%) 1,000 word individual reflection on group work (20%) and a 3,000-4,000-word essay (70%) due in week 11 for semester 1 and week 9 for semester 2

A book of readings will be provided.

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.

Upon completion of this subject, students will have developed skills in:

• Critical thinking and analytical skills
• Working with others and in teams
• Problem-solving
• Oral communication skills
• Finding, evaluating and using relevant information
• Written communication skills