Unit rationale, description and aim
This unit introduces allied health students to the theories, principles and processes of Community–Centred Practice in a global context. This knowledge is integral to improving the health and well-being of communities, and enabling the inclusion and participation of individuals within their communities, in both the local and international context. As such, it is of relevance and importance for future allied health professionals. The unit facilitates exploration of the fundamental components of Community–Centred Practice required for supporting communities to assess and identify assets and needs and to design strategies that will enhance community wellbeing, social capital and participation. Students will undertake learning in Rome, using case examples and international experiences to explore theories, principles and processes in practice and to highlight the challenges and facilitators to working effectively with communities as part of an inter-professional team. This unit contains one learning outcome from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Curriculum Framework (HCF, 2014), specifically addressing the HCF cultural capability Reflect and Advocate. The overall aim of this unit is for allied health students to understand and implement theories, principles and processes of Community–Centred Practice.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unitLearning 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.
Analyse what contributes to a community, the role ...
Learning Outcome 01
Engage in participatory approaches to working with...
Learning Outcome 02
IPEF: 2.2.1 Communicate own scope of practice and ...
Learning Outcome 03
Draw upon theory, experience and reflection to pro...
Learning Outcome 04
HCF: 13.3 Generate strategies for incorporating an...
Learning Outcome 05
Content
Topics will include:
- Definition of community
- Social determinants of health (history, geography, culture, politics and religion)
- Role of social determinants in the development and maintenance of communities, diversity and intersectionality.
- Colonisation and migration – impact on development and maintenance of communities
- Social capital – definition, differences in community groups
- Race – definitions, descriptions, experiences and access to health and human services/supports, inequity in access to social capital, vulnerability in social capital bridging, addressing/responding to racist behaviour with affirmative action
- Culture and culturally responsive practice
- Ways of working with communities (e.g., health promotion, community development, capacity building, community education, recognising asset)
- Participatory approaches to working with communities
- Project design with communities (e.g., outcome measurement, goal setting)
- Interprofessional Practice – scope of practice when working with communities; negotiating boundaries, working effectively in teams
- Sustainable development goals
- Human flourishing and ethics
Assessment strategy and rationale
This unit provides students with opportunities to demonstrate their learning across authentic assessment items, utilising different modalities. The assessment strategy allows students to progressively develop their knowledge and skills to the level of sophistication where they are able to produce their own community project proposal.
Assessment 1 requires the completion of a needs analysis and asset map to build a community profile which considers the factors that contribute to the development and maintenance of a given community and factors that contribute to inclusion and exclusion from community. Students will be required to work in small groups to apply research skills introduced in years 1 and 2 of the program, such as literature searching, analysis and synthesis, data collection, analysis, integration and interpretation, but to apply these at a community level. Application of these research skills will enable them to identify unmet needs within a given community, and barriers and facilitators to participation, leading to the identification of a community project to address these needs.
Assessment 2 requires students to work with a small group, drawing upon the community profile to plan an appropriate project to address an unmet need of a community group, and propose participatory approaches to working with community groups to achieve the project.
Assessment 3 is a graded hurdle requires students to reflect on their beliefs, values and attitudes towards working with communities and other professionals, and consider how their community engagement experience and the interprofessional activities they have undertaken, as well as the theoretical frameworks and literature they have encountered, have supported their understanding and learning of community-centred practice. Assessment 3 is a graded hurdle because it is the only graded task that explicitly assesses learning outcome 5 and it is also the only individual graded assessment task. Students have one extra attempt at this assessment task if they fail on their first attempt, provided that their overall unit grade is 50% or above.
In the ungraded hurdle task, students will participate in community engagement experiences and complete a reflective journal to document their experience of working with communities, working with other disciplines and how they might apply their learning from this experience to contribute to effective solutions to social injustices and health inequalities in future. The ungraded hurdle task (Community engagement) requires students to attend mandatory community engagement activities, as specified in the unit outline. Students will have one attempt to pass this hurdle task.
In order to pass this unit students must:
- Demonstrate achievement of every learning outcome, and
- Obtain a minimum mark of 50% for the unit, and
- Achieve a mark of 50% or greater in Assessment 3 which is a graded hurdle, and
- Achieve a pass in the ungraded hurdle.
Overview of assessments
Assessment 1: Community profile (Group) Students ...
Assessment 1: Community profile (Group)
Students complete a community profile including a needs analysis and asset-mapping, description of social determinants of health (including history, geography, culture, politics and religion) and factors that may contribute to inclusion and exclusion from community.
35%
Assessment 2: Project proposal (Group) Students p...
Assessment 2: Project proposal (Group)
Students plan a project to address an unmet need of a community group, discussing the approaches they would use to work with a community.
35%
Assessment 3: Reflection (Individual) Students re...
Assessment 3: Reflection (Individual)
Students reflect on their community engagement experience, demonstrating how theory has informed their understanding.
Graded Hurdle
30%
Community engagement Students participate in comm...
Community engagement
Students participate in community engagement experience(s) and complete a journal to record their experiences and learning.
Ungraded Hurdle
(Pass/Fail)
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit draws on the strengths of online and face-to-face delivery to maximise student engagement with the learning materials and participation in the learning activities. The unit will combine lectures, in which key information will be presented to students, and interactive tutorials, in which students will discuss and apply that information while participating in small group, collaborative learning. The unit will support students in the exploration of new knowledge relating to their role in advocacy and community development, as well as the extension of knowledge relating to interprofessional and culturally-sensitive practice. As a unit offered in an international setting, students will engage in activities in the international setting to immerse themselves in the community they visit; and debrief/reflection sessions upon their return to explore and share their learnings. This unit involves 150 hours of learning inclusive of a combination of face-to-face and online delivery, interactive and independent learning, assessment tasks, and a community engagement experience. This approach allows for fundamental knowledge and skill development with support from academic and community members.