Unit rationale, description and aim
As interest in all aspects of mental health increases in contemporary society, inclusive of experience, treatment, and policy, studying mental health and society offers ways to investigate the social constructions, contexts, and consequences of mental health problems and mental illness. Mental health is often posed as an individualistic phenomenon with its states deriving from ‘strengths’ or ‘weaknesses’ located in the individual. However, as this unit explores and develops, social contexts have a profound impact on how mental health problems are defined, managed, and treated, and how current individualistic frameworks for approaching mental health problems contribute to various forms of social exclusion and disempowerment, exacerbating the effects of mental health challenges. Through learning about the social and structural conditions surrounding mental health, the unit seeks to inculcate a deep empathy for those who live with serious mental health challenges. The unit aims to provide students with deep conceptual knowledge and relevant theoretical perspectives on how social contexts influence how society defines, treats, and manages mental health problems in everyday life through the institutional powers of advanced capitalism, neoliberalism, and pharmacology.
Campus offering
No unit offerings are currently available for this unit.Learning outcomes
To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.
Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.
Explore the graduate capabilities.
Articulate seminal themes, issues, and debates rel...
Learning Outcome 01
Analyse various social science approaches to menta...
Learning Outcome 02
Develop empathy concerning mental health experienc...
Learning Outcome 03
Content
Topics will include:
- The evolution of mental health as a public policy concern
- Mental health states and mental illness: construction and definitions
- The social determinants of mental health
- Psychiatry, power, and the pharmacological model of mental health
- Sedation versus action: managing mental health for social inclusion
- Mental health and the logic of neoliberalism
- Mental health fitness and advanced capitalism
- Mental health and human rights
- Indigenous ways of mental health
- Young people, mental health, and social stigma
- Communities of suffering and healing
Assessment strategy and rationale
A range of assessment procedures will be used to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes consistent with University assessment requirements.
The case study is designed to enable students to articulate their knowledge of the themes, issues and debates addressed in the unit by means of assessing a real-life example of a mental health issue impacted by social contexts. The Written Task allows students to identify and articulate important social contexts of mental health conditions and also critically assess how mental health is contextualised, experienced, and managed within social, political, and cultural frames. The Reflective Task gives students the opportunity to investigate a story, narrative or episode whereby a serious mental health condition is given a human rendering and the social consequences of mental health conditions, such as social exclusion and social stigma, are explored. The aimof this assessment is to produce a deeper empathic appreciation of what many people with serious mental health challenges experience on a day-to-day basis. Part or all of the reflective assessment may be completed under supervised conditions. To pass the unit students need to submit assessment tasks and successfully achieve the associated learning outcomes.
Overview of assessments
Assessment Task 1: Case Study To develop skills...
Assessment Task 1: Case Study
To develop skills in identifying and articulating salient social contexts that impact mental health conditions.
30%
Assessment Task 2: Written Task Students are r...
Assessment Task 2: Written Task
Students are required to demonstrate their knowledge of the themes, issues and debates addressed in the unit by means of a written presentation or other means of engaging with the themes and student cohort as specified by the lecturer.
40%
Assessment Task 3: Reflective Task This task re...
Assessment Task 3: Reflective Task
This task requires students to reflect on the consequences of mental health conditions using the knowledge acquired and developed in the unit to produce a reflective and empathic account. it may be run as an in-class task or otherwise supervised reflection.
30%
Learning and teaching strategy and rationale
This unit employs two formal ways of learning and teaching. Lectures are structured to promote case-based learning, a format that involves collaborative deep learning. Students will explore real-world challenges and problems, a process that requires them to demonstrate their investigative, problem-solving, and decision-making skills. Case-based learning requires learning specific theories and concepts that will complement the conceptual tools and theoretical knowledge critical to analysing divergent approaches to the sociological study of mental health. Tutorials for this unit provide students opportunities for active learning. Students will engage in activities including reading, writing, interrogating ideas, exploring case studies, doing role plays, debating, and giving presentations. These activities, as well as promoting analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of lecture content, are designed to build skills appropriate to second year study in Sociology and the Social Sciences.
The unit may be run in multimode or online scheduled formats. To achieve a passing standard in this unit, students will find it helpful to engage in the full range of learning activities and assessments utilised in this unit. The learning and teaching and assessment strategies include a range of approaches to support your learning, such as reading, reflection,discussion, webinars, podcasts, video etc.