James Cook University Subject Handbook - 2001

TM1310:03

Foundations for Health in Indigenous Communities

Townsville

Prerequisites: TM1400

46 lectures, 4 tutorials, 10 hours workshops. Intensive block mode.

Available to students enrolled in the Diploma of Indigenous Health.

Staff: Ms A Napier.

Educational and training programs for Indigenous health workers need to meet national competency and training standards and focus on the National Indigenous Health Targets. The teaching of this information requires a conceptual framework of cultural relativity to, and delineation of, the role of indigenous health workers as pivotal cultural brokers who facilitate Western medical models of care and indigenous health practices. A sound knowledge and understanding of basic anatomy and physiology and the relationship between health and illness in the indigenous and mainstream contexts is intrinsic to their development as professional health workers. The culturally relevant framework within which the health workers are taught will reinforce their roles in the practical realms of delivering services that achieve National Indigenous Health Targets.

Learning Objectives:

  1. be able to examine the concepts of health within an indigenous and non-indigenous context;
  2. demonstrate sound knowledge of the basic structure of the body systems;
  3. identify how the body systems function in states of health;
  4. identify how the body systems function in states of ill health;
  5. describe the relationship between disease processes and the abnormal function that occurs within the body systems within the indigenous context;
  6. describe common diseases that exist in indigenous communities;
  7. understand the relevance of excess mortality and morbidity rates in Indigenous populations to the National Indigenous Health Targets;
  8. understand the relevance of the health worker role in relation to the Agreed National Indigenous Health Targets;
  9. be able to link the National Indigenous Health Targets to health promotion and health education strategies.

Assessment by first week group presentation (10%); first week two-hour examination (20-25%); daily homework assessment (30-40%); second week group presentation (10%); second week two-hour examination (20-25%).