PSYCHOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVES ON HEALTH AND ILLNESS

PSYCHOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVES ON HEALTH AND ILLNESS

ESSAY GUIDELINES
You are invited to write an essay, which explores an issue relevant to your (potential) professional practice and/or explores a clinical or public health issue about which you’re curious, or focusses on an area in which you would like to increase your knowledge/expertise. It’s likely that this issue/topic area will have been addressed in one of the lectures/seminars and/or occurred to you while writing your weekly journal entries during this semester. However, this is not essential as long as your chosen topic allows you to write an essay that meets the criteria for the tasks outlined below.
It’s important and usually best if you can frame the issue/topic area and the title of your essay as a question; for example:
 What contribution can counselling make to building community capacity?
 How can personal perspectives on psychosocial aspects of the lived experience of acquired brain injury be applied in the development of rehabilitation programs, and related services?
 How might arts–based interventions be used in rehabilitation?
 What are preventative strategies that can be developed to minimise harms associated with drugs and alcohol?
 Can mental health promotion campaigns work the same in all settings (e.g. taking into account diversity in culture, gender, class)?
 What can be done to improve the health and well-being of prisoners?
 How and in what ways can stigma function as a barrier to change?
 How have I developed as a psychosocially informed practitioner during this semester?
 How best might healthcare practitioners collaborate with community volunteers?
In some cases answering your question might involve considering and critiquing an existing healthcare program or policy. In others it might lead you to suggest new programs or policies that could be developed. In others again answering your question might mean developing strategies for building inter-–disciplinary partnerships so that an appropriate range of expertise can be brought to bear.
The essay should include both critical evaluation of resources available and practical application of your findings. That is, one key task, is critical comparison. This comparison may be between the information and evidence available through the literature and the extent to which this is taken into account by healthcare services, programs, and/or some level of policy (local, regional, state, national). These in turn may be assessed through a wider public health perspective, represented by a life course perspective or the Ottawa Charter framework. This wider perspective, which you will also have encountered in other parts of your course, may often help in forming recommendations or ways to improve access to or provision of services etcetera. So to summarise: In the essay we will be looking for reflective, critical, psychosocially–informed ‘treatments’ of the issue or topic area that you have chosen. This means completing the following tasks using the designated subheadings (i) to (iii) as if you were writing an article for a professional peer reviewed journal.
Key Tasks and Subheadings:
i. Introduction: Indicate (by outlining a personal connection or professional interest) why you’ve chosen this issue or topic area. If it has been developed from your journal you should describe how the essay builds upon what you discovered/reflected upon. It is important to also outline/define the scope of your issue or topic area (what you are including/excluding). [10 marks]
ii. Literature Review: This should be a critically–oriented synthesis of relevant literature – research studies, clinical studies, professional practice accounts, social or cultural studies, media resources, with particular attention to psychosocial/public health perspectives (for example, Ottawa Charter, population health model, life span epidemiology, person-centered care, or a general social model of health). [30 marks]
iii. Application: Summarise your findings (conclusions and/or recommendations), including commentary on what you’ve learned that’s relevant to your declared interest (point i above). [20 Marks]