The Indigenous Health Promotion program aims to give Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers and other practitioners the opportunity to add to their knowledge and skills in promoting community health. This includes identifying community needs and strengths, developing and implementing an action plan, then evaluating its impact.
The course was developed in consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health professionals and is based on national and international best practice in indigenous health promotion.
Course outcomes
Indigenous health promotion aims to improve Indigenous health at a community level. This means identifying community needs and strengths, developing a plan of action, putting it into practice and evaluating the plan to identify the extent to which positive changes have occurred. Effective health promotion requires effective communication with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and organisations, with health service managers and with a range of organisations and people outside the health system. This course will give students the opportunity to add knowledge and skills in promoting health to their clinical and community knowledge skills.
There is particular emphasis on demonstrating the importance of community participation and community development.
Sydney Medical School resolutions and the printed handbook are the official statement of Faculty policy. The resolutions contained in the printed handbook are accurate as at August 2011. If a conflict is perceived between the content of the printed handbook and information available elsewhere, Sydney Medical School resolutions and the information available in the handbook online shall always take precedence. See the handbook online website: sydney.edu.au/handbooks/medicine/ See the Policy Online website: sydney.edu.au/policy, for copies of University policies.
Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Health Promotion
These resolutions must be read in conjunction with applicable University By-laws, Rules and policies including (but not limited to) the University of Sydney (Coursework) Rule 2000 (the 'Coursework Rule'), the Resolutions of the Faculty, the University of Sydney (Student Appeals against Academic Decisions) Rule 2006 (as amended) and the Academic Board policies on Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism.
Course resolutions
1 Course codes
Code
Course title
KF022
Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Health Promotion
2 Attendance pattern
0.
The attendance pattern for this course is full time only.
3 Admission to candidature
(1)
Available places will be offered to qualified applicants based on merit, according to the following admissions criteria. In exceptional circumstances the Dean may admit applicants without these qualifications but whose evidence of experience and achievement is deemed to be equivalent.
(2)
Admission to the diploma is restricted to Aboriginal and Torres Strait islanders and requires:
(a)
at least three years working experience in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities, and experience in engaging communities in action to improve their health;
(b)
prior learning that shows they can complete a course of study - the most obvious example is a degree or equivalent, but credit can be given for all forms of tertiary education;
(c)
knowledge of, and sensitivity to, working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people; and
(d)
support for their candidature from their local communities and, where possible, their employers.
4 Requirements for award
(1)
The units of study that may be taken for the courses are set out in the Table of Units of Study: Indigenous Health Promotion.
(2)
To qualify for the award of the Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Health Promotion a candidate must successfully complete 36 credit points, comprising:
(a)
30 credit points of core units of study; and
(b)
6 credit points of a Final Project unit of study.
5 Transitional provisions
(1)
These resolutions apply to persons who commenced their candidature after 1 January, 2011 and persons who commenced their candidature prior to 1 January, 2011 who formally elect to proceed under these resolutions.
(2)
Candidates who commenced prior to 1 January, 2011 complete the requirements in accordance with the resolutions in force at the time of their commencement.
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Ms Suzanne Plater Session: Int March Classes: 6-day intensive workshop Assessment: 1xwritten community profile (no word limit) (70%), and 1xclass presentation of community profile (20%) and class attendance (10%) Campus: Camperdown/Darlington Mode of delivery: Block Mode
This is the first of six sequential, interdependent modules, only provided for students enrolled in the Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Health Promotion. Students will be introduced to the rationale for and components of a community profile. They will be introduced to sources of data available and required, to set up, structure and formulate a profile of their own community. The data are a combination of routinely collected statistics, and local reports on community-defined strengths and needs. Particular attention will be given to finding, managing and presenting the data in a format that is accessible and useful to the students' own communities as well as to professional colleagues, health agencies and funding agencies. The community profile provides students with a basic overview that enables them to develop culturally secure and effective programs for working with their communities to promote health effectively.
Textbooks
will be provided
INDH5212 Health Promotion Program Planning
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Ms Suzanne Plater Session: Int May Classes: 6-day intensive workshop Assessment: 1xwritten assignment (no word limit) (90%) and class attendance (10%) Campus: Camperdown/Darlington Mode of delivery: Block Mode
This is the second of six sequential, interdependent modules, only provided for students enrolled in the Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Health Promotion. In this module, students will be introduced to the components of a planned health promotion program. They include examining and structuring the ways in which students can engage others in their communities in identifying the causes or determinants of the public health problems they have identified; preparing a plan of action that outlines measureable aims and objectives; examining the ways in which human, financial and other resources can be mobilised to enable program implementation; as well as how to structure and formulate strategies for action.
INDH5213 Goals, Objectives and Strategies
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Ms Suzanne Plater Session: Int June Classes: 6-day intensive workshop Assessment: written assignment (no word limit) (90%) and class attendance (10%) Campus: Camperdown/Darlington Mode of delivery: Block Mode
This is the third of six sequential, interdependent modules, only provided for students enrolled in the Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Health Promotion. Students will identify and discuss the strategies used to achieve the goals and objectives of their health promotion programs. They will be introduced to theories used to develop strategies, and will analyse case studies of effective Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health promotion. Students will identify the capacity needed by communities and organizations to implement strategies and the actions they can take to ensure the cultural safety of their work.
INDH5221 Communication
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Ms Suzanne Plater Session: Int August Classes: 5 day intensive workshop Assessment: written assignment and development of promotional materials (50%), development and recording of a radio sting (40%) and class attendance (10%) Campus: Camperdown/Darlington Mode of delivery: Block Mode
This is the fourth of six sequential, interdependent modules, only provided for students enrolled in the Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Health Promotion. This module introduces students to the theory and practice of communication as a tool for promoting health. Students will develop knowledge of and skills in interpersonal, group, and public communication for health. They will expand their skills in conflict resolution. They will be introduced to social marketing theory and practice. They will also examine the negative and positive contributions of the mass media to promoting the health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people.
INDH5224 Research and Evaluation
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Ms Suzanne Plater Session: Int Sept Classes: 5 day intensive workshop Assessment: 1x written assignment (no word limit) (30%), presentation (60%) and class attendance (10%) Campus: Camperdown/Darlington Mode of delivery: Block Mode
This is the fifth of six sequential, interdependent modules, only provided for students enrolled in the Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Health Promotion. The students will be introduced to the role of research in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health promotion. They will identify ethical issues important in research design and implementation, and identify research methods that will assist Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island communities to describe health problems and their causes, to develop effective strategies to address these, and to evaluate the progress and outcomes of health promotion interventions. They will also identify ways in which research must be carried out in their communities in order to ensure that communities are not exploited or harmed by the research. The students will also learn to identify organisations and individuals with whom they might form partnerships, to extend the range of research that can be carried out in their communities. The students will define culturally secure and effective methods that are available to evaluate health promotion programs conducted with and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their communities.
INDH5227 Art, Science and Politics of Prevention
Credit points: 6 Teacher/Coordinator: Ms Suzanne Plater Session: Int November Classes: 5 day workshop Prerequisites: INDH5211, INDH5212, INDH5213, INDH5221, INDH5224 Prohibitions: INDH5226 Assessment: 1x written assignment (100%) Campus: Camperdown/Darlington Mode of delivery: Block Mode
This is the last of six sequential, interdependent modules, only provided for students enrolled in the Graduate Diploma in Indigenous Health Promotion. Students will be expected to apply and reflect on the knowledge and skills learned in each of the coursework modules they have completed. Each student will prepare a project report, integrating the learning across the whole course into a single intervention program. With the approval of the community for whom the project was developed, the report will include chapters on the profile of the community, a program plan that outlines measurable aims and objectives, strategies, an implementation plan, and an evaluation plan. The report will also include the student's reflections on their learning. The students in consultation with their employers and their communities will determine the explicit focus and direction of the project. The completed project will demonstrate the student's knowledge of and skills with regard to the key elements covered throughout the course.
Textbooks
Jirojwong S & Liamputtong P eds (2009). Population Health, Communities and Health Promotion. Oxford University Press, South Melbourne.