Public and community health minor
Minor
The Public Health and Community Health minor provide plans for and support the dissemination of health information that is used to facilitate positive health outcomes. The level of expertise that these professionals contribute to the field of healthcare is integral to reducing disease burden, eliminating health disparities, and providing optimal educational programming that focuses on clinically related topics. These professionals are employed by agencies who work in close partnership with a wide range of public, private, and voluntary organizations.
This course will serve as an introduction to the discipline and profession of health education for disease prevention and health promotion. Students will examine the concepts of health & wellness, the determinants of health behavior, national health status, the history of health education and health promotion. Students will be provided with the necessary skills for the development, delivery, and evaluation of health programs to targeted populations.
Wellness is seen as a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being. This course explores the social dimension to wellness (or health and illness). Both health and illness vary across times and cultures and are related to how we define normal. Wellness is also closely related to our position in society; social identities such as socio-economic status, race and ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation impact our life chances, lifestyles, access to care, and attitudes towards health and illness. In other words, this course approaches health and illness from a sociological (rather than philosophical or ethical) perspective.