Communicating for Health, not Harm (POPH30005)

Communicating for Health, not Harm is the capstone subject in the Public Health and Epidemiology Major in the Bachelor of Biomedicine.

In this Public Health and Epidemiology Major capstone subject students will take a deep dive into the challenges faced by health practitioners working in the modern world of misinformation, dark marketing and green/pink/social washing. Students will learn to identify methods used by industry and others to influence the community. Relevant pervasive examples of messaging from industry will be scrutinised. Students will learn to counter the challenges, and address the different goals of health communication, such as advocacy, awareness raising and behaviour change. This subject will cover the modern approaches that can be utilised to meet the different health communication goals. Students will learn about communicating health messages through community engagement, using diverse media (i.e., social media) and at an individual level.

Students will then be able to apply these learnings in a new and unique university initiative whereby they will work with the Health Promotions Team at the University of Melbourne to develop health messages in an active campaign. The output generated by the students in this subject will be directly utilised as part of the campaign. The hands-on, real-world experience gained through working on an active health promotion campaign will provide valuable skills and experience for future careers in the health field. In this real-world capstone experience the topics covered and methods chosen will change each year, depending on the health needs of the goals of the Health Promotions team.

This subject will be relevant for any students moving into the health professions, public health or biomedicine, as it will equip them with important communication skills and an understanding of effective health communication strategies.