You are public health practitioners working in a health improvement role within a local authority. You are located in a large town with a population of 250,000 residents. The town has an industrial heritage based on manufacturing industries which have been in decline over the last 40 to 50 years. It is an area which is characterised by high levels of poverty and deprivation. A number of new housing estates have been built on the outskirts of the town, mainly housing young families. An out-of-town shopping centre has been built with a leisure complex. The population is ethnically mixed with 26% of the population from minority ethnic groups. Unemployment is higher than the national average. There is an ageing population. Older people live mainly in the older housing in the centre of the town and are at risk of social isolation and poverty. There is some anti-social behaviour, some of it on the two housing estates on the fringes of the town, but mainly in the bar and nightclub area of the town centre on Friday and Saturday nights. There is a fear of crime in places.
The provision of public transport is adequate although the frequency of the buses could be improved, especially in the evenings. The bus service to the district general hospital, located four miles from the town centre, is infrequent and quite expensive. Traffic is heavy, there is no by-pass and the park-and-ride scheme is underused. The town has several parks and open spaces, which residents feel make an important contribution to the natural environment but which are not widely used. The local authority provides leisure opportunities at several sports centres and there are also privately owned gyms and leisure clubs, which are clustered in the town centre.
A recent, large-scale, semi-structured survey of the town carried out by the council indicated that fear of crime, lack of access to amenities and financial problems were the main identified concerns of residents, but different parts of the population expressed very different views about priorities for improvement. Health needs analysis undertaken by your department identified high rates of infant mortality and high levels of child poverty. Epidemiological data you have reviewed indicates that the overall health of the population is much lower than the national average, with lower life expectancy. A high percentage of the residents die prematurely from cancer, heart disease and stroke and respiratory conditions such as pneumonia. Stroke and cardiovascular diseases are above the national average, as is the incidence of diabetes, and Accident and Emergency department statistics reveal higher than average alcohol-related health problems.
…WE DISCUSSED WITHIN OUR GROUPS. i will attach info in my account
Question:
1. Review your experience of working in the team, analysing the challenges you faced and the skills you developed while working in partnership within your group. (50% of the marks) (1750-2000 words)
Part 2 asks you to reflect on the challenges of working in partnership in a team and to support your views with evidence from the module materials. This could include discussing theories and principles of teamwork and partnership working and making the links between theory and practice. Think about issues such as leadership and followership, building trust and creating shared objectives. Chapter 13 in the core text has some useful examples to help you..will post this later..
• review your experience of working in the team
• analyse the challenges you faced (potentially as an individual member and as a team)
• consider the skills you developed (which is different from the skills you applied).
2) Assess how the learning you have done through this exercise might help you to promote the health of an organisation or locality in which you are involved. (35% of the marks)
In Part 3 you assess how you can apply your learning to a context in which you live or work. This does not need to be a public health professional role; it might be helping with a local group in a voluntary capacity. Draw on your learning not just from Learning Guide 3 but also from Learning Guide 1 – your understanding of teamwork, models of behaviour change and ethical issues might all be of relevance here. You might also draw on the report ‘Behaviour change at population, community and individual levels produced by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, England and Wales (NICE) in 2007. A further study, ‘Behaviour change: individual approaches’ (PH49), NICE, January 2014 might also be useful.
