Mental Health — A BioPsychoSocial Perspective
This course will provide participants an opportunity to examine the concept "mental health" from a variety of perspectives (biological, psychological, and social/cultural/political), and to gain first hand experience with mental health services via a field placement in a community-based health, mental health, or social service agency. Faculty from a variety of academic disciplines and a range of professional interests will present their distinctive perspectives, and students will be encouraged to consider how these intersect in the context of their liberal arts education, personal experiences, and their course field experience. Integration of the instructional material and field experience will be facilitated by a weekly discussion period (second half of class) based on student experiences. Students will be asked to help arrange for staff members from the field sites to attend and participate in some of these discussions. Integration will also be supported by three short essays reflecting on the course material and the field experiences to date, by a web-based course final integrative paper and associated peer review and discussion, and finally by the course primary instructor.
Participants in this course will -
- Build on their liberal arts education to advance their understanding of mental health as a concept and mental health issues as they effect individuals, groups, and populations in our society
- Learn about and contribute to the ongoing discussion within our culture of how to understand and deal with issues in mental health, a discussion in which the importance of diverse existing perspectives and areas of expertise needs to be brought together in a more coherent way.
- Explore a variety of ethical, legal, and value issues associated with mental health and mental health services in our society
The course will make extensive use of the web and internet, both as resources and as an arena for communication and conversation. In addition to this site, the course will use a Blackboard site to which this site is reciprocally linked. Course papers and other generally useful materials will appear here so they can become part of the wider public consideration of mental health issues. Click here for complete original course syllabus.
General web resources:
| Course Home Page | Mental Health on Serendip | Center for Science in Society | Serendip Home |
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© by Serendip 1994-2002 - Last Modified:
Wednesday, 07-Aug-2002 15:20:24 EDT