Perspectives for health and health promotion

This unit is the second of four health discipline units, following the first year unit (EDF1076). This second unit is designed to develop and enhance your health-related knowledge, skills and capabilities as a health worker, and/or partner in health and education initiatives. Health and Physical Education (HPE) teachers and pre-service teachers can build their capacity to enhance health outcomes of others, beyond the curriculum, as a whole-school approach or in taking roles or partnerships beyond curriculum work. You will focus on content mastery and the practical application of health education, and health promotion in local contexts, located in Australian society and internationally. The unit aims to provide you with a strong health knowledge base for broad application in a variety of future employment and health education contexts. Central to this, is the exploration of current research and practices in relation to the health status of Australians, youth health issues (for example drug use, food and nutrition, body image, and safety), health inequities, determinants of health, and contested knowledges in health. The unit specifically focusses on developing skills to design and evaluate effective health promotion strategies. In this unit, careful consideration, care and respect is given to the ways in which health is experienced differently by various groups and individuals. Therefore, developing cultural competencies and interpersonal skills for working with priority or marginalised populations, and in different settings including communities, schools, universities and cities.