Lesson 1: Foundations of Community Mental Health and Illness

Attention

Community Mental Health is about COMMUNITY!

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:

  • Define community, community mental health, mental health, and mental illness.
  • Describe the history of mental illness.
  • Explain how community affects mental health.

Teaching

Lecture

Community mental health, while conceptually a new idea, has always been at the heart of mental health, and mental illness.

Click HERE to read the Wikipedia entry on Community mental Health

One of the emerging areas of Community Mental Health is the use of mobile technology for research purposes.

This app is called Mental Health Survey Application. "The aim of this smartphone application is to provide users with an electronic platform to partake in validated questionnaires (for research purposes). Their doctors would be able to track their progress based on the questionnaire scores. The secondary aim of this application is to acquire data for healthcare outcomes research."

You need to register and be invited to participate in any of the studies. This app is included for exploratory purposes online and we will discuss the app and it's potential.

Structure of the Class

Each Lesson in this course is going to be outlined in a similar manner as to this one.

Each Lesson will have Learning Outcomes, a Teaching section, and a list of Assessment activites that you have to complete. These may include quizzes (questions that you enter directly into Bb through an online quiz), Assignments (these are papers that you create in a word processor and upload to a "Drop Box"), and Discussions (these are online forums where I will ask you to consider and discuss delicate and controversial topics.

Special Assignments relate to Essential Learning Outcomes for this course (an institution-wide initiative)

It is vital that you participate in EVERY aspect of the course.

Some of you might have some challenges related to organizing your time. We have found an app that you might consider.

This app is called myHomework Student Planner...pretty self-explantory

Assessment

Lesson 1 Quiz

  1. Consider the protective factors that a community brings to the field of mental health. In light of the risk factors that originate in a community, discuss why a field like community mental health exists. The community is dynamic, so are the origins and resilience of the factors in the face of mental illness.
  2. If physical illness is treated as a "predictable" conseqence of heredity, family history, etc., and life-style choices, like career and environmental exposures, why does illness that is mental carry a negative connotation? Heredity may equally play a role here, as can life-style choices. Where does the difference in perception come from?

Lesson 1 Discussion A

In this discussion I would like you to post your Introductory Video. For this task you are going to create a brief introductory video of yourself using your iPad! Reply to each others' posts with questions and comments.

We have created a special page that reviews your options for recording video and presenting it in class. Click HERE to review that document.

Lesson 1 Discussion B

Review the content and structure of the Mental Health Survey Application. How beneficial is this approach to research in terms of us understanding mental health. If you have signed up to participate in any studies, share your experience.

To get full credit for the online graded discussions you need to post ONCE to the prompt and reply to at least TWO other students' posts. Your reply posts must be substantive in nature. See the grading rubric in the syllabus for more information. These instructions will apply to ALL graded discussions and will not be repeated.