PUBH632 - Public Health Law and Policy

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

Unit rationale, description and aim

If public health embodies the organised effort of society to protect and promote health, then public health law and policy is fundamental to achieving that organised effort. The aim of this unit is to enable students to develop the knowledge, understanding and skills necessary to use law and policy to improve public health. Following an overview of the Australian legal system and institutions, students will be introduced to fundamental legal concepts and principles, followed by an examination of key areas of public health law relating to health protection, practitioners, systems and services, as well as specific issues or situations that pose a risk to population health. Students will also consider policy development, implementation and analysis, and the role of politics, interests, evidence and economics in shaping policy. Students will then apply their knowledge and understanding to the process of law reform and policy change, with emphasis on public health advocacy for improving law and policy and thus improving public health and wellbeing.

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

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

LO1 - Describe examples of law and policy that promote or protect public health in a diverse range of settings  (GA1, GA2, GA3) 

LO2 - Demonstrate an integrated understanding of the law and policy making processes, especially the contribution of public health practitioners and other key actors (GA3, GA5) 

LO3 - Critically apply legislative and policy responses to complex public health challenges (GA4, GA5, GA6) 

LO4 - Evaluate and critique law and policy making processes in contemporary areas of public health programmes and interventions (GA4, GA5, GA6) 

Graduate attributes

GA1 - demonstrate respect for the dignity of each individual and for human diversity 

GA2 - recognise their responsibility to the common good, the environment and society 

GA3 - apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA6 - solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account

Content

CONTENT  

Topics include: 

Public health law 

• Introduction to the Australian legal system: history, institutions, concepts, relationships, international comparisons; fundamental legal principles 
• Law and health generally: health rights, theoretical obligations, practical applications and examples
• Reading and interpreting law: definitions, rules, case examples 
• Common legislative objectives and powers used in public health 
• Legislative schemes and institutions directly relevant to public health:  

Public health policy 

• Health policy: areas, structure and jurisdictional influences 
• Policy development: theoretical models and frameworks and policy-making processes
• Interests and influences on policy: politics, stakeholders and advocacy groups  
• Evidence and the policy-making process: evidence-based vs evidence-informed policy 
• Policy implementation, monitoring, analysis and evaluation  
• Economics: fundamental role in and influence over health policy 
• Evaluation of public health policy

Advocacy and public health law and policy 

• Advocacy and its influence on law and policy 
• Law reform and policy change: key points in parliamentary, political and public-sector processes  
• Case studies: examples of public health (or other interest group) advocacy in debates on law reform or policy change 

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

To achieve the sequence of learning outcomes specified in this unit, the learning and teaching strategy adopted comprises three phases that are designed to provide students with a developmental learning experience.

a) The unit begins with approaches designed to support acquisition of knowledge needed to understand fundamental legal institutions, concepts and principles of public health law relating to protecting and promoting the health of the population.

b) It builds on this by progressing to activities that support the development of a theoretical understanding of concepts, frameworks, and processes needed to inform the skills for public health policy development and implementation.

c) The final stage involves approaches that support students in developing skills needed in the application of the theoretical understanding of law and policy to public health practice.

Thus, overall, the approaches used in this unit have a constructively aligned developmental sequence designed to progressively and logically support students learning in ways that maximise the perceived (and actual) relevance and value of each stage. As an overarching strategy, this is known to engender higher levels of engagement and effectiveness in students’ study behaviours, and to maximise their learning achievements.

PUBH632 is offered in both multi-mode and online mode. 

Multi-mode 

In multi-mode, this unit is delivered primarily via face-to-face sessions on campus (e.g. lectures, workshops, seminars). The unit uses an active learning approach where activities support students to acquire essential theoretical knowledge in public health law and policy. Online content (e.g. readings) via the ACU Learning Environment Online (LEO) also supports this acquisition. Seminars and workshops are designed to allow students the opportunity to apply lecture content to particular public health contexts/scenarios, and progressively develop higher level skills of analysis and application of law/policy in public health practice. 

Online mode  

In online mode, students acquire essential theoretical knowledge in public health law and policy via a series of asynchronous online lessons which include: recorded lecture content, online readings, online discussion forums and self-directed learning modules. Students are given the opportunity to attend facilitated synchronous online tutorial classes (virtual classroom via Adobe Connect) to participate in the construction and synthesis of this knowledge with other students so as to develop higher level skills of analysis and application of law/policy in public health practice. 

Assessment strategy and rationale

Please note assessment is the same for students undertaking either multi-mode or online mode. 

A range of assessment procedures will be used to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes consistent with University assessment requirements. In order to successfully complete this unit, students need to complete and submit three graded assessment tasks and obtain an aggregate mark of greater than 50%. 

Assessment task one comprises discussion forums and quizzes designed to support acquisition of knowledge needed to understand fundamental public health law and policy concepts and principles relating to protecting and promoting population health. These formative tasks will be scheduled early in the semester to provide students with timely feedback to monitor progress and allow opportunities for improvement. 

Assessment task two enables students to integrate their understanding of public health law and policy making processes by simulating the work of a public health practitioner working as a Policy Analyst providing policy and regulatory analysis and advice, in the form of a formal briefing for an organisation.

The third assessment task, allows students to consider the unit content as a whole, and to progressively develop their knowledge and skills to the level of sophistication where they are able to critically evaluate and apply policy and law processes to a particular public health issue or intervention.

Overview of assessments

Representative texts and references

Boyle, P. (2010). Policy and public health (2nd ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 

Buse, K., Mays, N. & Walt, G. (2012). Making health policy (2nd ed.). Berkshire: McGraw-Hill Education.

Forrester, K., & Griffiths, D. (2015). Essentials of law for health professionals. Chatswood, N.S.W.: Elsevier

Gostin, L.O. (2010). Public Health Law and Ethics: A Reader (2nd ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press [ACU Ebook] 

Kerridge, I., Lowe, M. & Stewart, C. (2013). Ethics and law for the health professions. Sydney: The Federation Press. 

Lin, V., Smith, J., Fawkes, S., Robinson, R. & Gifford, S.M. (2014). Public health practice in Australia: the organised effort. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin 

Wagenaar, A.C. & Burris, S.C. (2013). Public Health Law Research: Theory and Methods. Hoboken: Wiley [ACU ebook]