HLSC120: Society, Culture and Health; Semester 1 2017
Assessment Task 1: Reflective Writing Proforma
Weighting of unit = 40% Word limit 1750 words
Due Date: Friday 7th April 2100 hours
Follow this proforma and Table 1 for topic 1 or Table 2 for topic 2 (below) to organise your response to the reflective writing assessment task (this is not an academic essay). Use the steps as headings and write in paragraphs below the headings. Check the following link to online Academic Skills Unit resources and/or see an Academic Skills Advisor for assistance with reflective writing: Writing at ACU: Reflective writing
https://leo.acu.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=785432&chapterid=10064
All sources should be referenced using APA style. Ensure that you use all the factors from the SI template to complete this reflective writing task.
Step 1
Carefully choose one topic from the Reflective Writing Topic 1 or 2 below to guide your reflection. Write the question here:
Step 2
Use the sociological imagination (SI) template to reflect on your feelings, thoughts and behaviours in response to knowledge, experiences and observations in relation to your chosen question from Step 1. (500 words)
Step 3
Continue reflective writing using the SI template to answer the original question you identified in Step 1, using Germov (2104) and a minimum of at least six other academic sources (e.g. journal articles, research reports from the HLSC120 e Modules) to support your answer. Locate these academic sources through your own information search. Analyse how these resources helped you to expand and deepen your original reflections on this topic. (1000 words)
Step 4
Finally, explain how answering this question has helped you to achieve one of the four ACU Graduate attributes aligned with HLSC120 by reflecting and critically analysing your thoughts and feelings about the original question based on your research. (250 words)
HLSC 120 Reflective Assignment Topics 2017 Topic 1
Significant concerns confronting Australian society are the inequities in health between socioeconomic (SES) groups which result in lower SES groups having significantly higher rates of morbidity and mortality at an earlier age. Follow Table 1 to apply the SI template to analyse the construction of this problem for a disadvantaged group in Australia and reflect on the social model of health to reduce these inequities.
Topic 2
A significant concern confronting society both in Australia and internationally is the use of illicit and recreational substances which in turn cause significant health issues and community apprehension. Follow Table 2 to apply the SI template to analyse the construction of this problem and reflect on strategies from the social model of health that could reduce this concern from a sociological perspective.
.
Table 1
Topic 1 Sociological analysis using the Sociological Imagination (SI) Template
SI
Template STEP 2: Reflection and SI template Introduce and use the sociological imagination (SI) template to reflect on your feelings,
thoughts and behaviors in response to knowledge, experiences and/or observations in relation to this topic. STEP 3: Reflection, SI template with academic sources. Reflect on how academic resources helped you to expand and deepen your original reflections on this topic to support your answers to questions such as those shown below. Refs.
Historical factors:
Reflect on your own socioeconomic status from a family history perspective and decide how this has influenced your beliefs in the social or biomedical model of health.
Describe how historical factors can influence social inequity such as low SES groups having lower life expectancy? What insights can be gained from nineteenth century epidemiology on life expectancy for low SES groups living in squalid conditions? Germov
Chapter 5 (2014 )and a minimum of
at least two academic source
Cultural Factors:
Reflect on the cultural origins of your personal perspective of health and illness and decide if this aligns with the social or biomedical model of health. How does your cultural understanding of health and illness affect the structure of your health care? What is the cultural value of individual responsibility and how does this impact on social inequity? Provide examples of culturally acceptable practices in different cultures which can lead to illness? Germov
(2014 )and a minimum of
at least two academic source
Structural Factors:
Reflect on social factors that have influenced your decisions about your own health care? These social factors include educational institutions, health care institutions, the medical profession, nursing and allied health professions, alternative health care industry and state government. How can ‘neo Marxism’ (p. 28) explain how health care is organised for low SES groups? What is the role of the state and health care institutions? What structural factors effects the lack of access to health care for many low SES groups in Australia and globally? Germov
(2014) and a minimum of
at least two academic source
Critical
Factors:
Reflect on comprehensive primary health care (PHC) compared to selective PHC. Do you think PHC is the way health professionals can contribute more effectively to decreasing health inequities of low SES groups. Why has primary health care (PHC) been marginalized in the Australian health care system? (p. 486) How is it possible to use the social model of health to reduce health inequities for low SES groups? Germov chapter 25
(2014) and a minimum of
at least two academic source
Table 2
Topic 2: Sociological analysis using the Sociological Imagination (SI) Template
SI
Template STEP 2: Reflection and SI template Introduce and use the sociological imagination (SI) template to reflect on your feelings, thoughts and behaviors in response to knowledge, experiences and/or observations in relation to your topic. STEP 3:Reflection, SI template with academic sources. Reflect on how academic resources helped you to expand and deepen your original reflections on this topic to support your answers to questions such as those shown below. Refs.
Historical factors: Example questions Reflect on your own concerns confronting society both in Australia and internationally regarding the use of illicit and recreational substances from an historical perspective. Decide how these perspectives have influenced your beliefs in the strategies that could help resolve this controversy. Describe how historical factors such as legislation being passed and the drug problem becoming criminalized and institutionalized, has often resulted in stigmatization and labelling. What insights can be gained from rehabilitative legal responses and the option of therapeutic justice? Germov
Chapter 15
(2014) and a
minimum of
at least two academic sources
Cultural Factors: Example questions Reflect on your own cultural practices and how you feel about the firmly established drug and drinking culture in Australia especially within disadvantaged groups. What is your personal perspective of drug use and abuse? Do you attach stigma to groups of people who use drugs? Provide examples of culturally acceptable practices which can lead to drug abuse? What is the cultural stance of drug abuse being a health problem, which requires interventions based on harm minimization? What sociological research evidence can you use to support your argument? Germov
(2014) and a
minimum of
at least two academic sources
Structural Factors: Example questions Reflect on social factors that have influenced your own beliefs and those of your peers on the use and abuse of drugs. These social factors include educational institutions, health care institutions, the medical profession, nursing and allied health professions, alternative health care industry and state government. How can ‘Symbolic interactionism’ (p.29) explain stigma of drug addiction? What is the role of the government and
health care institutions when it comes to Big Pharma and medicalisation? What harmminimisation strategies have you found that could reduce the negative effects of drug use? Germov
(2014) and a
minimum of
at least two academic sources
Critical Factors: Example questions How can you as a health professional contribute more effectively to reduce the negative effects of drug use and stigma? Which strategies could help to reduce this concern from a sociological perspective? Has the dominance of ’Big Pharma’ (p.291) and medicalization raised concerns of placing profit above health in Australia? What alternatives are there? How is it possible to reduce societal fear and stigma using the social model of health? Germov
(2014) and a
minimum of
at least two academic sources