SWN005 Health, Wellbeing and the Human Condition

Unit Outline: Semester 1 2024, Kelvin Grove, Internal

Overview

In this unit an intersectional lens is applied to the health of communities not just individuals. This also means understanding health and wellbeing in its many dimensions (social, psychological, cultural, structural and spiritual), as well as their historical and political context. For example, it means understanding how the burden of disease and social determinants of health are related to oppressed populations; how colonisation and neoliberalism affect health and wellbeing. Questions will be asked about the opportunity for all to live a 'good life'. Mental health is treated as a subset of health and wellbeing, and the online quiz focuses on this. 

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Critically analyse inequality and the social determinants of health, mental health and wellbeing, with regard to key strategies responsive to those determinants, including digital responses
2. Analyse and critically review the roles and responsibilities of government, non-government, families and other diverse stakeholders that respond to the health, mental health and wellbeing of individuals, families, communities and more broadly society.
3. Apply knowledge and skills when advocating for the complex health, mental health and wellbeing needs of culturally diverse clients, inclusive of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
4. Apply a critical social work approach to health, mental health and wellbeing paying attention to digital access, equity and literacy for socially disadvantaged communities.

Content

Learning Approaches

The unit is underpinned by critical social work pedagogies, adult learning principles and dialogic workshop practices inclusive of opportunities to advance their application of knowledge and skills. There is a mix of online lectures and face to face, on-campus workshops focussing on the health and wellbeing of diverse populations--in their social and historical contexts. 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives: Indigenous health perspectives from Australia but also internationally are considered in many weeks of the unit's classes, foregrounded in week 1 with Decolonising Health. Examples of Indigenous-led health programs are emphasised, as we explore how ongoing forms of colonisation and white and non-Indigenous privilege continue to negatively impact the lives of our first nations communities. 

Career development and employability: Fields and modes of social work practice are explained and you will explore your motivations for social work and early preferences for fields and modes of practice. Emphasis is placed on social work’s use of self: we are our tools. Peer networking made available through the on-campus, in-person workshops, and various social media groupings. Assessment 3 is authentic and involves making a health advocacy submission on behalf of an oppressed group. Group collaborations offer opportunities to innovate with creative social work interventions. We critically inspect notions such as resilience and adaptability, taking account of our social work values of social justice, empathy and client self-determination.

Diverse cultural perspectives: Cultural perspectives are defined broadly beyond ethnicity. An intersectional perspective is used that considers injustice on the basis of race/ethnicity, age, sexuality, gender, class and geographical location. Diverse cultural perspectives related to health are woven through the unit, for example, queer health campaigns, women's health services, and how work in alliance with others to understand their definitions of and goals for 'the good life'. 

Embedded support for learning: Student Success staff assist the delivery of this unit to offer support to both individuals and groups, including through Studiosity. Weekly postings of the Student Success offerings are made through the unit's online learning platform. Student representatives from the two social work student groups (SWAHS and SWAHPS) also visit our class to explain their academic and social support. Unit staff also offer students considerable 'pastoral care' and make referrals to the QUT Counselling Services when necessary. The Library Liaison person is on hand to assist with the sourcing of learning materials. 

Industry relevant technologies: This unit is part of the Digital Capabilities Project, and digitally fluent social work practice in health assists future graduates to provide current and future e-services. Online collaborations are central to the learning process. All three assessments are conducted online, with the two health advocacy assignments dedicated to 'real world' online communication across public and professional audiences. 

Sustainability: In Week 1 Decolonising Health focuses on Indigenous health perspectives but also related topics of climate change, global warming, water politics, physical and social contexts for health and wellbeing, and community rights (especially remote Indigenous communities). Discussions regarding environmental, human social and economic sustainability make reference to the UN's Global Sustainability Development Goals. Future oriented sustainability practices, including paperless and petrol-less e-communication are emphasised alongside worker sustainability in the context of work intensification and other neoliberal processes.  

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

• There is a twelve week lecture series and at critical points, information and feedback about assessments will be given and you will have the chance to raise questions. 
• There are two full day intensive workshops enabling you to have face-to-face interaction and engagement. During these days there will be sessions designed for you to give and receive learning and assessment feedback. 
• On the Discussion Forum, you will post your first piece of assessment (health advocacy blogs) and peer feedback is expected.
• Staff feedback will give you feedback throughout the semester in tutorials but also written feedback on your three assessment pieces, with whole of cohort feedback given through Canvas. 
• You are free to email us anytime with questions about the unit, or any challenges you are facing studying the unit. 
• Assessment 1 and 3 are eligible for 48hr automatic extensions.

Assessment

Overview

Assessment is threefold: 1) the Discussion Forum, where you post two (authentic, or real world) Indigenous health advocacy blogs; 2) the online quiz that assesses AASW mental health curriculum; and 3) the Health Advocacy Submission, which is another authentic assessment. 

Unit Grading Scheme

7- point scale

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Indigenous health advocacy blogs

This item assesses your ability to use a critical social work lens to specified health issues affecting an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander population. Two short health advocacy blogs (500 words each) will be written and posted on the discussion forum for all students to read. Blogs need to be carefully crafted so as to clearly identify suggested ways forward for actioning an Indigenous health priority. Engaging imagery accompanying the written text is encouraged but must abide by copyright. You are also encouraged to submit your blog on a 'real world' site to advance the health needs and interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.  

Assessment: Online quiz

This is an online multiple-choice quiz focused on all materials covered in this unit that address mental health and wellbeing.

Assessment: Health Advocacy Submission

Students can work individually or in groups, prepare a detailed health advocacy submission of 2000 words on a pressing health issue related to social injustice.

Authentic assessment: The authentic role is social work practitioner representing a client/community group on a serious health issue. The audience is a government inquiry or commission. The purpose is to show your ability to do critical social work. The product is the submission inclusive of recommendations. For example, you can do so on behalf of the AASW to a Federal Senate Inquiry recently established to investigate and identify strategies to address a specific Australian health issue. Other 'real world' submission possibilities are also able to be negotiated.  

Students who elect to do a group submission will receive a group mark. 

This is an assignment for the purposes of an extension.

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.

Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Resources

Resource Materials

Prescribed text(s)

The QUT Learning Platform will host an extensive list of the prescribed and additional readings that are freely available to download through the QUT Library. 

Risk Assessment Statement

Discomfort might come from exploring a range of health contexts and conditions, which could unsettle or confront. Please note there will be discussion of colonisation in the context of health, particularly Indigenous Australian's health in Week 1 and the ensuing weeks will examine serious physical, mental, social and political health issues. Content warnings will be given, including but not limited to the following traumatic topics: domestic and family violence, sexual assault, suicide, war, refugee issues, including torture, homelessness and disasters. 

Course Learning Outcomes

SW81 Master of Social Work - Qualifying

1. Critically evaluate and apply critical social work theories, knowledge and skills that reflect the professional standards of the discipline and identify with the values and ethics that guide professional practice, including the recognition of diversity, human rights and promotion of social equality and justice.
   Relates to: Indigenous health advocacy blogs, Online quiz, Health Advocacy Submission
2. Formulate strategies for engaging in critical thinking, decision making, critically reflective and culturally safe practice to create innovative and contextually responsive interventions that work towards emancipatory change.
   Relates to: Indigenous health advocacy blogs, Online quiz, Health Advocacy Submission
3. Apply digital capabilities while accessing and evaluating relevant bodies of knowledge that guide collaborative, intra- and inter-professional practice with diverse populations (individual, groups, communities) to promote and advancing socially just outcomes.
   Relates to: Indigenous health advocacy blogs, Health Advocacy Submission
4. Communicate respectfully and work effectively with diverse groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, LGBTINBQ+, refugee, disabled and older populations, their families, carers, interprofessional teams and community leaders, to ensure safe and coordinated support for their interests and rights.
   Relates to: Health Advocacy Submission
5. Practise professional integrity, and effective written, oral and digital communication to analyse and convey complex information and build productive relationships across diverse stakeholders to promote ethical social work practice.
   Relates to: Health Advocacy Submission