Undergraduate - UnitOCC3061 - Health promotion in occupational therapy

This unit entry is for students who completed this unit in 2015 only. For students planning to study the unit, please refer to the unit indexes in the the current edition of the Handbook. If you have any queries contact the managing faculty for your course or area of study.

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6 points, SCA Band 2, 0.125 EFTSL

Refer to the specific census and withdrawal dates for the semester(s) in which this unit is offered.

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
Organisational Unit	School of Primary Health Care
Offered	Peninsula First semester 2015 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Mrs Karen Richards

Synopsis

This unit examines the key theory, frameworks and practical approaches used in contemporary health promotion to address health inequalities, prevent illness and injury, and promote health and wellbeing. Students examine a range of health promotion strategies, their strengths, limitations, evidence-base and application in clinical care and community settings for occupational therapy. Through a focus on empowerment, participation and capacity-building, students develop skills for working with individuals, community networks, new technologies and the mass media to facilitate health promotion action. This unit covers planning and evaluation of health information and behavioural interventions, health education for empowerment, community engagement, social marketing, professional communication and advocacy for healthy public policy. Students critically analyse the challenges and opportunities for integrating health promotion into occupational therapy practice.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

Demonstrate their understanding of the frameworks that underpin health promotion in clinical and community settings by:

a. Identifying structured approaches and distinguishing key features of existing health promotion programs;

b. Describing the values, principles and charters that guide health promotion practice;

c. Critically analyse the challenges and opportunities for integrating health promotion into contemporary occupational therapy practice.

Demonstrate the application of health promotion principles in clinical and community settings for occupational therapy by:

a. Describing community engagement and capacity-building approaches to improve the quality and sustainability of health promotion;

b. Compare and contrast primary care, behavioural and socio-environmental approaches to health promotion (including strengths, limitations, evidence of effectiveness);

c. Describe and discuss the range of health promotion strategies and analyse their application in a range of clinical and community settings.

Demonstrate ability to plan and evaluate a health promotion program focused on a selected issue and population in a clinical or community setting by using key principles and evidence-based approaches (above) to:

a. Developing a community analysis and needs assessment plan (including a range of community subgroups and stakeholders);

b. Describing a health promotion outcomes framework and how it is used in program planning;

c. Developing an appropriate plan for implementation, evaluation and dissemination.

Demonstrate how they operationalize health promotion in their clinical and community settings by:

a. Outlining strategies for developing inter-sectoral and inter-professional partnerships;

b. Planning and producing communication materials appropriate to the selected health promotion issue, setting and strategies (including health information, education and empowerment, advocacy).

Assessment

Essay (2,000 words) (30%)
Evidence review and preliminary program plan (4,000 words) (group submission) (30%)
Group presentation (15 minutes per group) (10%)
Final health promotion program plan (2,500 words) (30%)

Hurdle requirement:
Attendance at 100% of tutorials, unless a medical certificate is provided.

Workload requirements

12 hours per week including contact time (1 hour lecture, 2 hour tutorial), fieldwork and self-directed learning.

Chief examiner(s)

Mrs Karen Richards

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Occupational therapy

Prerequisites

HSC1081, IPE1011 or equivalent units.