Unit Code: EVH512

Unit Name: Environmental Health and the Community Resilience

Description: The way this course is taught will be very different. As an Environmental Health Officer, you will become a manager of change. This means that you will often be presented with problems, which you have never met before. Even with the best possible foresight, no one can predict the nature of those problems, so we can’t teach you about them now. What we can do, however is teach you how to recognize a problem when you have one, and how to attack it when a solution is needed. If we choose problems carefully, our learning experiences will always be relevant and real and they will present exciting challenges, which will demand your attention and invite your commitment. If the Tutor solves all the problems and give you “pat answers”, you may admire his ability or lament his lack of it but you will learn nothing about problem solving yourself. In short, you will derive benefits from the Practicum in direct proportion, to the effort you make according to your gifts and abilities. There will be lots of discussions, lot of field work, lots of reading to do, several reports to write and, if you put your hearts into it, lots of satisfaction and even excitement about what and how you are learning. You need to put forward your ideas, listen to the ideas of others, contribute to discussion, participate in making decisions, help organize the group and take your turn in leading group activities. That means: everyone has a right to be heard; everyone has a responsibility to contribute and the whole group must agree on a proposed course of action We know you will find this difficulty and we will be ready to help you cope with these feelings. If you are to be effective as a problem solver, you must become a life-long learner. The process will include gathering new information, sorting it, relating it to past experience and applying it. The teaching strategy of the practicum is designed to help you develop this ability. Our role as tutors or facilitators is to guide and facilitate practical exercises while you as students will be expected to do bulk of the work for effective learning.

Learning Target Outcomes: On successful completion of this course, the students will be able to : 1. Explain the concepts of Primary Health Care, Health Promotion & Healthy Islands 2. Describe community cultures and organisations in the Pacific Island Countries (PICs) 3. Discuss environmental health needs assessment 4. Demonstrate the use of community data 5. Identify problems with the community considering ethical principles 6. Develop action plans with the community 7. Organise community interaction and communicate findings.

Prerequisite: NA

Prerequisite Sentence: N/A

Credit Point: 15

Offered In: Semester 2