zCourse Objectives

The main aims of the course are to:

• Enable you to recognise some of the physical, emotional, and societal needs of diverse populations in the UK
• Develop your broader understanding of health and social care through the life span
• Develop your research skills in these areas
• Develop your capacity for critical thinking in these areas
• Offer opportunities for self-directed, pair and group learning through a wide variety of learning methods
• Offer opportunities for discussion of issues arising from internship placements.

Course materials are listed below. Please log in to view these items.

Course Comments

"Stephen Clift is an incredibly nice person who is simply overjoyed to share his passion for the subject with his students. He was kind enough to invite me to accompany him to meet colleagues in the field, which broadened my understanding of the content but also professional academics work in the world." Anon., Fall 2009

"Dr Clift is kind and explains concepts with great clarity." Anon., Fall 2009

"A very sweet, good natured, approachable professor. Made the class interesting by using slides/videos/pictures and field trips." Anon., Spring 2009

"I loved the field trips, they really contributed to my understanding of the class. The small size allowed for intimacy and it was nice to bcome friends with my classmates." Anon., Spring 2009

 Faculty Information

Dr Stephen Clift holds a PhD from the University of Aston in Birmingham, he has been a visiting Professor at Boston University since 1994 and is a Professor of Health Education at Canterbury Christ Church University College. He works in the field of Health Promotion, and has undertaken practical projects and academic research in a wide variety of areas including: sex and HIV/AIDS education for young people and international travel and health. His current area of interest is the contribution of the arts and music to health, with particular reference to the health benefits of singing.

Claudia Hammond holds an MSc in Health Psychology from Surrey University and a BA in Applied Psychology from Sussex University. She is a broadcaster and writer and works for the BBC, making and presenting radio programmes on psychology, science and medicine. In her job as the presenter of BBC Radio 4's All in the Mind, the only British radio programme on psychology and mental health, she regularly interviews the biggest names in psychology including Albert Bandura, Philip Zimbardo and Martin Seligman. She is also the presenter of the critically acclaimed Mind Changers on the history of ground-breaking psychology experiments and Health Check, a weekly programme on global health broadcast on the BBC World Service and on TV on BBC World News. Her latest series State of Mind, written and presented by Claudia, traces the politics and social history of mental health care in the UK from the 1950s to the present day. Claudia is the author of Emotional Rollercoaster: A journey through the science of feelings (2005) which has been translated into six languages. More details and links to her programmes and publications are at www.claudiahammond.com or at www.twitter.com/claudiahammond.

Course Syllabus and Materials

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Return to main course page (Fall/Spring or Summer).

Hyperlinked readings:

Barker, D. (2003) "The midwife, the coincidence, and the hypothesis", British medical journal, vol. 327. Available at: http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/327/7429/1428. Requires registration.

Birn, A-E. (2009) "Making it politic(al) : closing the gap in a generation : health equity through action on the social determinants of health", Social medicine, vol. 4, no. 3, September 009. Available at: http://journals.sfu.ca/socialmedicine/index.php/socialmedicine/article/viewFile/365/719

Donaldson, Sir L. (2009) 150 years of the Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer: On the state of public health 2008. Department of Health. Available at:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/AnnualReports/DH_096206

Donaldson, Sir L. (2010) 2009 annual report of the Chief Medical Officer.  Department of Health. Available at:
http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/@dh/@en/@ps/documents/digitalasset/dh_114012.pdf

Graham, S. (2006) "From Groucho Club to rehab: one woman's battle to beat cocaine addiction", The Independent, 06/03/2006. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/from-groucho-club-to-rehab-one-womans-battle-to-beat-cocaine-addiction-468765.html

Halfon, N. & Hochstein, M. (2002) "Life course health development :an integrated framework for developing health, policy and research",The Millbank quarterly, vol.80, no.3, 2002. Available at: http://www.milbank.org/quarterly/8003feat.html

Hallam, S., Rhamie, J. & Shaw, J. (2006) Evaluation of the primarybehaviour and attendance pilot. Research report no. 717. Department forEducation and Skills. ISBN: 1844786781. Available at: http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/research/data/uploadfiles/RR717.pdf

Hoddinott, J. (2002) "Effect of a nutrition intervention during earlychildhood on economic productivity in Guatemalan adults", The Lancet,vol.37. Available at: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2808%2960205-6/fulltext#article_upsell. Requires registration.

Kuh, D. et al. (2003) "Life course epidemiology", Journal of epidemiology and community health, vol.57. Available at: http://jech.bmj.com/content/57/10/778.full.pdf. Requires registration.

Marmot, M. et al. (2008) "Closing the gap in a generation : healthequity through action on the social determinants of health", TheLancet, vol. 372. Available at: http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2808%2961690-6/fulltext#article_upsell

McQueen, D.V. (2009) "Three challenges for the social determinants of health pursuit", International journal of public health, vol. 54, 2009. Available at: http://www.springerlink.com/content/gxgp12k7237665n6/fulltext.pdf

Ryff, C., Singer, B. & Love, G.D. (2004) "Positive health :connecting well-being with biology", Philosophical transactions of theRoyal Society of London : B, vol.39. Available at: http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/359/1449/1383.full.pdf+html

Singh-Manoux, A. et al. (2003) "Leisure activities and cognitive function in middle age : evidence from the Whitehall II study", Journal of epidemology and community health. vol. 57.  Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1732329/