Unit 3 – Area of Study 2: Promoting health and wellbeing
Outcome 2
Explain changes to public health approaches, analyse improvements in population health over time and evaluate health promotion strategies.
Examples of learning activities
- access Gapminder and use their statistical tools to track health improvements in Australia since the 1900s; identify any key medical advances or social issues (for example world wars or the discovery of antibiotics) that may have seen peaks or troughs occur in the data; create a visual timeline
- find media articles and historical photos (for example the Herald Sun article on the history of psychiatric hospitals) to compare approaches to health care across the past century, and write a report on how treatment has changed over time; student research can be general, or could focus on mental health or maternal and child health care; identify healthcare practices of 100 years ago and categorise them as either a biomedical or social model approach
- view the (silent movie) clips of the Austin Hospital in 1928 (Clip 1, 2:50 mins; Clip 2, 2:03 mins); note the curator’s explanatory notes beneath the clips; identify and discuss the evident differences between health care then and today
- provide a list of examples that represent each of the priority action areas of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion; in pairs create a quiz where other students have to determine the priority area that each example represents
- collect images of health promotion programs and/or health promoting resources in their local area e.g. walking tracks, immunisation advertisements, shade sails over the local playground; upload the photos into a Padlet and annotate aspects of the social model of health and/or Ottawa Charter that the particular program or resource meets
- in small groups, brainstorm the major characteristics that represent a biomedical model of health to generate a definition
- use case studies and film clips to identify the advantages and disadvantages of the biomedical model of health for individuals and the community
- view a medical program (documentary or drama) and identify aspects of biomedical health care
- construct a Venn diagram showing the similarities and differences between the biomedical and social models of health
- create PMI (plus, minus, interesting) charts for the biomedical model of health and the social model of health
- in pairs, students research a current community health promotion program in their local area or state; document the aim(s) of the program and how they are to be achieved; identify aspects of the Ottawa Charter and/or social model of health evident in the program
- in small groups, consider a range of ‘what if’ statements:
- What if we only had the biomedical model of health?
- What if we only had health promotion?
- What if Australia didn’t have Medicare?
- What if we didn’t have private health insurance?
- use a description of the social model of health and the underlying principles, develop a set of criteria that could be used to guide the development of a health promotion program based on the social model of health
- create word clouds (graphical representations of word frequency) for the biomedical and social models of health, using a free online word cloud generator such as Wordle
- visit a local cemetery (if possible) that has an older section and a current section; audit some graves from around the early 1900s and some from 1990s to the present, recording the person’s age of death if available; calculate the average age of death from the graves and compare the average age for the early 1900s graves and the more recent graves; identify any trends; brainstorm reasons for these trends
- use a lotus diagram or other graphic organiser to summarise the Australian healthcare system
- in small groups, collect images of a range of healthcare services in the local area; categorise each service as the responsibility of local, state or federal government
- access the most recent version of Australia’s Health which is published by Australian Institute of Health and Welfare every two years; find the chapter on Australia’s health system (chapter 2 in 2016) and investigate how much Australia spends on health care each year and the types of services that the majority of funding is spent on; discuss if these services are a biomedical or social model approach
- identify future challenges for the Australian healthcare system in relation to funding, sustainability, access and equity
- create a Double Bubble (a type of Venn diagram: use a Google ‘Images’ search for examples) to compare Medicare and private health insurance and identify similarities and differences
- access Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s (APRA) Private Health Insurance Statistical Trends; find the graph of ‘Hospital Treatment Coverage (insured persons as per cent of population)’ on the ‘HT per cent coverage’ sheet in the Membership Trends Microsoft Excel datacube publication; consider the graph in relation to trends in uptake or decline of private health insurance since the early 1970s; use this as the basis for discussion of reasons for variations, in particular the role of federal government incentives to encourage individuals and families to purchase private health insurance
- access the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and find the publication (click on ‘Participants’) My NDIS Pathway; using this information and/or further web research, create a mind map explaining how the NDIS promotes the health of individuals with a disability; consider its funding, ability to be sustained over time, accessibility and equity
- write to a friend explaining why you agree with the statement ‘The Australian healthcare system is a fair and effective model’
- access the AIHW education resource ‘Public health campaigns and smoking rates’ (extracted from Australia’s Health 2016); identify trends in smoking rates; create a timeline of tobacco control initiatives
- visit How safe is your car?; identify safety features present in new cars and explain how the technology aims to keep people safe
- in groups, research safety technology advances in cars over the last 60 or so years; present findings in a timeline; compare the progression in safety advances to road death statistics; highlight any trends
- visit SunSmart; create an infographic timeline of sun safety initiatives over the years
- view some past SunSmart media campaigns/advertisements; in groups, discuss how effective they may have been and what strategies they use to change people’s behaviour
- interview older adults (parents, grandparents, significant others) about what they remember about health promotion programs (and the lack of such programs) when they were younger in regard to smoking, road safety and sun safety
- visit the Deadly Choices program and/or the Cape York Health Council; identify key aims of the programs and analyse how they reflect the action areas of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion
- visit the website of the Victorian Aboriginal Health Service and access the ‘History – Pre-1967’ and ‘History – Post-1967’ pages under the menu heading ‘Aboriginal Health’; use these pages to gain an understanding of the historical concept of Aboriginal health and what changes and programs have been implemented over time to realise improvements; assign pairs of students a period of time to summarise and present their findings to the class
- Nutrition Australia provides a range of nutritional services, in small groups select different services and describe how each promotes the health and wellbeing of individuals; share findings in a collaborative manner such as a class blog for example Global2 or Edublogs; for information about blogs download the Digital Deck: Blogging
- in pairs, access the Australian Dietary Guidelines; select one dietary guideline to research, including its terminology, current intakes in Australia and strategies in the community that are provided to help implement it and promote healthy eating; present information as a mind map
- The Healthy Eating Advisory Service is a Victorian Government initiative delivered in conjunction with Nutrition Australia; they have developed the ‘Pick & Mix 1–6’ strategy and poster; discuss, in groups, how the poster could help parents and children make dietary changes to their school lunch
- consider the effectiveness of the Australian Government’s ‘Healthy Weight Guide’ program; identify aspects of the program that could help individuals with weight loss/management and aspects that may be hard for individuals to implement
- complete a Venn diagram to compare the Australian Dietary Guidelines and the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating
- evaluate the school canteen menu against the recommendations of the Australian Dietary Guidelines; consider possible changes the canteen could make to ensure it meets the guidelines
- find or document a case study of an individual’s eating habits over a day; analyse food intake against the recommended number of serves according to the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating; if there are areas of over and under consumption, identify ways the person could modify their diet to meet daily servings guidelines; form conclusions as to why dietary improvements are difficult to achieve
- discuss the statement ‘our environment is stacked against maintaining a healthy diet’; brainstorm a list of factors contributing to the difficulty in achieving dietary change in Australia
Detailed example
Research inquiry: focus on mental health care
In small groups, students research how mental health treatments and practices have changed over the last century or so. A starting point could be the Herald Sun article ‘Victorian psychiatric patients’ grim fate in hellish 1800s hospitals’ (Mitchell Toy, 9 December 2014). Students also collect their own documentary evidence such as articles, photographs, books and/or audio-visual material, compiling a list of references and sharing their findings with the rest of the class.
The research inquiry should cover the following points:
- How were mental health patients treated 100 years ago?
- What methods of treatment were common? Identify whether treatments were a biomedical or social model approach to health.
- What are some of the common treatments in mental healthcare today? Identify whether these treatments reflect a biomedical or social model approach to health.
- How has the treatment of mental health patients changed over time?
- Discuss reasons for the shift in mental health treatment over the past century.