ASC5003 Advanced policy, prevention, and public health
Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences
ASC5003 Advanced policy, prevention, and public health is a level 5, 6-credit-point, postgraduate unit from the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, offered in 2025 in Semester 2 at Clayton. It has no prerequisites.
- Credit points
- 6
- Offered in 2025
- Semester 2
- Clayton
- Assessment
- No exam
- 3 tasks
This is the 2025 handbook entry. See the 2027 entry.
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Requisites
Before ASC5003
No prerequisites or corequisites besides the enrolment rules below.
After ASC5003
No unit lists ASC5003 as a prerequisite in the 2025 handbook.
Enrolment rules
Overview
This unit considers a population-based, public health approach to responding to addiction-related harms in the community. You will learn about the social and historical context of drug policy, review and compare local and international examples of public health and policy responses for legal and illegal substance use and other addictive behaviours (e.g., gambling and other process addictions).
Drawing on contemporary literature, you will learn about the social and political history of drug policy and explore local and international examples of public health strategies. You will develop understanding of how epidemiology informs public health policy and evaluate how prevention measures have been applied in a range of settings to reduce addiction-related harm. The impact of individual, community, and institutional forces on policy processes will highlight the unique complexities related to alcohol and other drugs and addiction policy implementation. You will critique the evidence for different prevention and harm minimisation and analyse how research is translated into effective policy and practice.
This unit will help to prepare you for further study, research, or employment related to addiction and substance use policy and public health practice in a range of health and community setting.
Offerings in 2025
| Teaching period | Campus | Mode |
|---|---|---|
| Second semester | Clayton | Online |
Assessment
- Two Skills Exercises (SE) - Reflective learning activities (500 to 750 words)Exercise20%
- Annotated infographic (1 page of graphics)Artefact30%
- Oral presentation (10 mins) and media brief (750 words)Presentation50%
Learning outcomes
When you finish this unit, you should be able to:
- 1
Critically review the evidence for effective public health policies in reducing harms attributed to legal and illegal substance use and addictive behaviours (e.g., gambling and other process addictions).
- 2
Synthesise ideas to effectively communicate issues and concepts relating specifically to addiction epidemiology, public health, and policy.
- 3
Appraise local and international public health strategies, interventions, and policy and investigate how individual, community and institutional forces can influence policy.
- 4
Explain how epidemiological data, public health and prevention contributes to reducing addiction-related harms in the community.
- 5
Evaluate primary, secondary and tertiary prevention measures and other harm minimisation strategies aimed at improving public health outcomes for people who engage in substance use and other addictive behaviours.
- 6
Critically compare public health responses between different drugs and behaviours and evaluate their effectiveness.
Workload and teaching
- Tutorials-
- Workshops-
This 6 credit point unit will be delivered online over 6 weeks (intensive mode).
The weekly workload is 12 hours per week. This includes 6 hours of teacher-directed learning (e.g., assigned readings, pre-recorded lectures, and other interactive activities to support discovery, exploration, application and reflection on learning) with approximately 4 hours of teacher-engagement (e.g., facilitated tutorials, workshops, discussion forums, etc.).
You are also expected to engage in self-directed study each week (e.g., further reading, reflection, skills development, and assessment tasks).
There are no on-campus requirements for this unit.
Learning resources
Required resources
This unit will be delivered online using the Monash Moodle software delivery system. All learning resources including reading lists will be provided within the unit in Moodle and via Research and Learning Online: https://www.monash.edu/rlo/home.
Monash Library Unit Reading Lists can also be searched for via the Library, here: https://monash.rl.talis.com/index.html
Required resources: It is essential that you have access to a computer with stable internet connection during this unit of study. Support for logging into Moodle, and recommended settings to improve your Moodle experience can be found here: https://guides.lib.monash.edu/moodle/login.
You will be required to have access to appropriate software to complete assessment tasks and participate in online activities. A range of software is available for download onto Monash and personal devices for students with a Monash Authcate account through the My.Monash Virtual Environment (for example, Miscrosoft Office 365 is available to enrolled students at no cost). Alternately, you can search the Monash software catalogue here: https://www.monash.edu/esolutions/software/catalogue.
Contacts
- Unit Coordinators
- Dr Siegfried Lichtwark
- Dr Rowan Ogeil
- Chief Examiners
- Dr Kirsten Schliephake
Common questions
What are the prerequisites for ASC5003?
ASC5003 has no prerequisites, but enrolment rules apply.
When is ASC5003 offered?
In 2025, ASC5003 runs in Semester 2 at Clayton, with an online option.
Does ASC5003 have an exam?
No. ASC5003 has 3 assessment tasks and no exam.