Syllabus: Promise of
Health
Summer, First
Session 2005
Tuesday/Thursdays
6:00–10:00 p.m. TESC
Seminar 2
Room E1107
Joan Bantz,
Office: Lab I, 3011
Office
Hours: T/TH 3:00-5:30 p.m., And By Appointment
email:
bantzj@evergreen.edu
Voice
mail:
360-867-5095
Home Page:
CRN: 40162
(GR) 40161 (UG)
Course Description:
This course
is
designed to enhance understanding of how socio-political frameworks
influence
health care delivery and public policies. Emphasis will be given to the
tension
between health and health care.This
course is recommended for
students who wish to enhance skills and gain practical
mechanisms
to intervene on behalf of community, programs or institutions.
Current
debates
about health care reforms rarely address social, multicultural, and
political-economic assumptions that frame what it means to be
“healthy.” In
order to understand how our collective understanding of health
(healing,
illness and wellness) shape our mental constructs, our reaction to
disease and
ultimately our organized forms of health care delivery; this course
explores
the cultural dimensions of human systems, including worldviews,
kinship/social
organization, inequities and healthcare beliefs. (Particular attention
will
focus on how these constructs impact specific communities (of color,
ethnicity,
women, and gays/lesbians.). We will examine American health
care visions and
values and how key actors are often at odds with one another.
People live longer and
healthier lives if they
eat well,
are well housed, are secure from war, crime, and domestic violence, are
not
deranged by drugs or alcohol, if they have plenty of clean water for
drinking
and washing, if they breathe clean air, if they have access to basic
vaccines
and antibiotics, if they can exercise some sense of choice in their
lives, and
if they have friends and family to give life meaning. The health can
depend
upon how many children people have, at what age and in what kind of
families,
what dynamics exist inside their homes, how much money and education
they have,
with whom they have sex and how, and what they do with their sewage.
Medicine and
public health are rarely at the top of the list. Skilled medical
professionals,
the right drugs and the right machines all help, but they are not
enough. What
builds health, it turns out, also builds community, public safety,
wealth, and
families. These are systemic tasks that require all the energy and
creative
thought a community can muster, from everyone who can make a
difference, from
business, the media and government to the poor and un/underrepresented.
Without
a
broader discussion and
collaboration concerning
these underlying determinates, our desire
for
universal access to a fiscally sustainable, quality focused system of
care may never be realized in the United States.
Course
Objectives:
Overall, we will
seek to integrate theory and practice. Specifically, this course will
enhance
students' abilities to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, and
equity of
health policies and programs. Upon successful completion of the course
the
student will have:
Required Text: (order of reading)
|
Random House, 2005. |
Shipler, David K |
The Working Poor:
Invisible in America |
|
ME Sharpe, 2005. |
Patel, Kant and Mark
Rushefsky |
The Politics of Public
Health in the United States |
|
Oxford
University Press, 2005. ISBN:
0195160398 |
Quadagno, Jill S |
One Nation, Uninsured:
Why the U.S. Has No National Health Insurance
|
|
APC Books, 2005. |
Church, Dawson and
Geralyn Gendreau (Editors). |
Healing Our Planet,
Healing Our Selves: The Power of Change Within to Change the World
|
|
Self-Selected text and
several articles |
|
|
PERFORMANCE/EXPECTATION:
A. Current
“Promise of Health” Text Selections
20 percent
B.
Journals
10 percent
C. Policy
Briefing,
Abstract and Bibliography
30 percent
D. Class
Participation 40 percent
Description of Performance
Measures and
Expectations:
The course
will be
conducted as an intensive seminar with workshops and lectures. Guest
participants will be invited to provide personal
insight into the topic under discussion.
Student comprehension of the course material will be demonstrated by
class and
Seminar participation, written assignments and shared intellectual
journals. A
final project presentation with detailed abstract and
bibliography will be
required from selected current health policy areas.
A successful learning community requires that students attend classes regularly, arrive prepared to critically discuss readings and complete timely all assignments. Please contact faculty in advance if you must be absent from class by e-mail or phone. More than one (1) absence may result in loss of credit. Work submitted late will be read only under extraordinary circumstances
Assignments:
A. Reflective Assignments Various dates
The assignments will consist of several different types of writing:
B. Intellectual Journey
Reflection Papers
Self or
Peer are due:
each class
Your
reflective
journal papers are to be completed by the beginning of class and must
be
exchanged and discussed in person or by email with a fellow co-learner
prior to
the next Seminar. These personal intellectual
journals/reflections or cognitive
maps should summarize the major message and concepts of the readings in
a
format that is useful to you and fellow co-learners. Journals are not a book report, but rather a
representation of what is important
in understanding the context of the
readings.
The intent of the journal/reflection papers is to capture your thoughts
about
several particular ideas, facts, or issues presented that warrant
seminar
discussion, and summarize these concepts and theories in a format that
will be
useful in your intellectual journey. The papers should demonstrate your
mastery
of the course material and its application in your work life in a
thoughtful,
clear and well-written narrative. Proper citations must be used. One
Page written peer reviews will be
incorporated into your journal before the following class. Submissions
of
journals, with peer reviews to faculty are required twice during the
session.
Learning
Objective: Critical thinking and
expression, reflective thinking and
shared responsibility for co-learning
community opportunity.
C.
Your Text
Selection: The Promise of
Health Due: July 21
To better address the myriad of information that exists on the subject
of
health care “frames” you will self select a current academic text. You will as well determine the relevance of
text material through use of the internet, interviews of key informants
on the
subject area or by observing an area where similar practices are taking
place. If the area you have selected
does not appear to have moved into practice in your region, you will
determine
why this is so. You will be presenting your findings in 5 minutes
segments in
seminar.
D. Briefing Paper and
Presentation
Due: July 19 and July 21
Most
public agency
deliberation is done within groups, and this course will mirror that
reality.
You will self-select groups of 2-3 members
from interests discovered during discussions the first week.
Students
will research, critically examine and draft a joint briefing paper and
"brief" the class. The briefings on current health care
challenges
will
grapple with key political, cultural, political, funding and trade-off
issues,
while exploring creative solutions. Good
source for policy area ideas:
http://www.kaiseredu.org
or the index http://www.kaiseredu.org/research_index.asp,
for those of you without much background in health policy this is a
great source: http://www.allhealth.org/sourcebook2004/toc.asp
and for those of you without an introduction to the movement of
mind/body/spirit this is but one introduction of currents authors: http://www.happinesssite.com/Press%20Release/Index.htm
Due at the time of the presentation:
1) Briefing
handouts will have points/bullets
formatted in a strong visual manner, easily reviewed by busy
individuals as per
in class workshop (should be no
longer than two pages.)
2) A 3-page executive summary, and detailed bibliography
signed
by all members
of the team and;
3) A
half
page assessment of each individual team member and self.
Learning
Objective: General knowledge, critical
analysis, writing skills, analysis and synthesis, practice brevity with
persuasion, constructive feedback,
oral presentation skills, assessment
and collaboration.
Course Calendar with speakers
E.
Portfolio Due:
July 21st
Last
Self-Assessment, Journals, Self and Faculty
Evaluation
Templates for
evaluations
are available ON-LINE at http://www.evergreen.edu/computercenter/formdownload.htm