Analyzing Health Risks Associated with Major Disruptions and Preventative Approaches

Assignment:

Write an essay that critically analyses health risks associated with major short or long duration disruptions to the environment, society, the economy, or a combination of these (50% of the assignment). By ‘disruption’ this assignment refers to change that would be beyond the capacity of everyday life to cope with unless risk reduction is engaged. As part of the same essay, proceed to identify the effectiveness of different existing health prevention activities that have been activated at the individual, local and regional scale based on the types of risks identified (25% of the assignment). The essay must then include your suggested prioritisation of intervention strategies, from secondary sources and those you speculate for scenarios that could avoid the health risks you identified leading to health emergencies (25% of the assignment). You may consider just one or a selection of health issues referred to in this module in your risk analysis and in suggesting your preventative approach and prioritising of contingency interventions that can be based on circumstances of any part of the world. Your work for this assignment is informally discussed during one of the module seminar sessions prior to its being submittedThe aims of this assignment are:

• To understand complex health risks.

• To identify preventative actions that address health risks for emergency health contingency planning.

The following module learning outcomes (LO) are addressed by this assignment:

Knowledge & Understanding:

• MLO 1: You will be able to appraise definitions and conceptions of health, well-being and prevention as used by a range of practitioners.

• MLO 2: You will be able to interpret the nature and context of health and well-being in disaster including physical and mental health risk, coping and the social, economic, cultural, political and environmental context of disadvantages and marginalisation.

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:

• MLO 3: You will be able to prioritise issues to be addressed for health and community well-being in disaster prevention and recovery and in everyday life including the identification of appropriate applications of the principles and practices in health and community well-being development.

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity):

• MLO 5: You will be able to empathise with mixed definitions, interpretations, and scaling of health and community well-being whilst applying your analysis of its constitution, ordering processes of change relative to different cultural interpretations, your own positionality and in the interests of philanthropic, civic (at various scales) and ethical behaviour in contrasting sectors.

A good answer will exhibit the following characteristics:

• A thorough understanding of the nature and context of health risks associated with disruptive change to the environment, society or economy or a combination of these based on a focal event or set of closely interconnected events. You should consider the inter-relationships of health risks as likely to be complex, involving bio-medical, environmental, social, behavioural, and political-economic factors.

• Ability to identify and prioritise a range of different approaches to the avoidance and mitigation of ill health and health emergencies dependent on a health crisis, which may be chronic, acute, endemic, epidemic, long term, short term and combinations of these.

• Inclusion of well sourced literature referenced by relevant journal articles and specific use of case study material to demonstrate a series of key points suitable for risk analysis and application in emergency health contingencies.

Health and well-being risk assessment and emergency contingency plan essay grades will be guided by the following marking frame:

• Critical analysis of health risks (50%)

• Identification of the effectiveness of different existing health prevention activities (25%)

• Prioritisation of intervention strategies you would recommend as suitable in developing a health contingency plan to address the health emergency identified (25%)

• Use of good referencing and well-integrated examples (influential throughout)

There is no assessed verbal presentation of this assignment. However, formative feedback for Assignment One will be provided through a group discussion on verbal summaries of the topic you will outline for discussion during one of the contact sessions. This will take place not less than a week before it is submitted as a final written piece of work. The feedback then continues in the form of individually orientated written comments on assignment scripts and through general feedback comments to the group during sessions following its submission.