Course Description
This course builds upon the foundational concepts of health, health promotion, health determinants, and population health. This requires an in-depth exploration of interdisciplinary meanings and measures of health and includes an examination of the relationship between risk factors, including stress and health behaviours, and the fundamental causes of ill health and disease. The interconnections between health promotion and therapeutic recreation practice are discussed and applied with examples of current models, strategies and interventions.
Course Content
Meanings and measures of health, quality of life, and wellbeing
- Interdisciplinary approaches
- Tensions between biomedical and social perspectives
Approaches to public health and health promotion
- Historical developments from health protection to health promotion
- Lalonde Report, Alma Ata Declaration, and the Ottawa Charter
- Principles of primary health care, health education, health promotion, population health, and health literacy
Population health and the social determinants of health
- Definitions and research evidence for major determinants including socioeconomic status, social support, physical environment and climate change, race and culture, gender and gender identity
- Exploration of other relevant and timely issues, including aging, ability / disability, mental health and addictions, homelessness, and violence
- Links to recreation, leisure, and therapeutic recreation
Today’s risk factors: stress and health behaviours
- Evidence for the connections between risk factors and morbidity and mortality
- Dimensions of stress –physiological, psychological, and cognitive
- Health behaviours and risk behaviours
Health promotion and health policy
- Models and approaches to health promotion
- Down-, mid-, and upstream interventions
- Advocacy and policy development
- Therapeutic recreation as a health promotion profession
Learning Activities
In this course, students engage in a variety of learning activities such as lecture, class discussions, small group work and workshops, community experiences, research, and student presentations.
Means of Assessment
Assessment will be based on course objectives and will be carried out in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy. An evaluation schedule is presented at the beginning of the course. This is a graded course.Typical means of assessment would include a combination of:
- Tests
- Written assignments
- Group facilitation and leadership
Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Analyze how health has been conceptualized and measured across different fields of research;
- Examine the major historical developments, debates, and tensions in the fields of health promotion and public health;
- Understand how the determinants of health are commonly understood, measured, and portrayed in relation to current health problems and issues;
- Analyze physical, psychosocial, and spiritual dimensions of stress as a health risk factor;
- Evaluate current health issues in relation to the role and interaction of various determinants;
- Articulate the links between the health determinants framework and models of health promotion and therapeutic recreation;
- Design a health promotion project and an evaluation framework to address one or several social determinants of health.
Textbook Materials
Textbooks and materials are to be purchased by students. A list of required readings and materials is provided for students at the beginning of the semester.