Course Description
Core and Theoretical Courses (6 courses, 3 credits each)
1. Theorising Health and Social Services I
This course will explore major theoretical debates in health and social services. It will also enhance understanding of social aspects and ethical dilemmas in health service provision and their role in the process. The course will be delivered through lectures.
2. Theorising Health and Social Services II
This course will be a continuation of the debates on health issues in social service delivery. However, this module focusses on practical and empirical aspect. Instead of lectures, this one will involve a series of practitioner seminars. The seminars will be delivered by professionals in relevant fields to share practical experiences. In particular, there will be a component of Chinese medicine practice and the role of social service agents and agencies. Each of the topics will relate to some of the theoretical issues raised during the first part of the course.
3. Health and Social Services Management
Skills in managing people and organisation have become invaluable for health care and social service providers. This course aims to enhance students’ leadership and managerial skills in health and social service delivery. It entails advanced discussions on theoretical frameworks, concepts, and approaches concerning health and social services management in operational level, including utilisation of human resources, materials, equipment and technology etc. The theoretical discussions will be delved into organisational culture and dynamics, fundraising, risk management and ethics etc. It will be supplemented with relevant case studies inspired by real situations of managing health-related social service delivery and the health sector in general, which is for the kinds of experiences they are likely to encounter at their workplaces. The course will be delivered through lectures, guest talks and fieldtrips.
4. Managing Service Users and Stakeholders
In this course, theoretical, philosophical and practical discussions will be explored about ways of incorporating experiences, ideas, and expectations of potential service users in the design and delivery of health and social services. Students will learn about approaches to establish and maintain a strong and valuable working relationship with service users and other stakeholders. They will also be led to examine the ethical boundaries in the relationship with different stakeholders and identify factors that enhance or inhibit the involvement of service users in service delivery.
5. Social Policy in Modern Societies
This course introduces students to social policy concepts and theories, with attention to the comparison of the social, economic, demographic changes taking place in the Greater China and East Asian regions. More specifically, it examines significant social policy challenges confronting societies in Greater China and Asia, examining how governments, markets and civil societies in the region respond to such challenges in adopting social policy policies appropriate for managing rapid changes.
6. Research in Health and Social Services
The module will focus on qualitative and quantitative approaches to researching health and social care management. It will involve practical approaches to gathering and analyzing data for health and social services. Students will be taken through research design, data collection, data management and data analysis of qualitative and quantitative research methods. They will be introduced to essential software for analyzing data including NVivo and SPSS. Also, students will be introduced to skills in the academic research proposal and academic writing. In collaboration with the Fong Sum Wood Library (Lingnan University), students will also be taken through methods in the literature review and managing literature in health and social care.
Experiential Courses (2 courses, 3 credits each)
7. Chinese Medicine in Health and Social Services
Chinese Medicine (CM) has been found to be a cost-effective method in disease prevention and treatment. Hence, more and more health and social care workers are introducing CM in their practice and public engagement activities. Thus, some fundamental knowledge of CM is useful and important in the proper planning and management of health-related social services. The course is divided into two parts. The first part provides students general understanding of the basic theories, working principles, methods for health promotion and disease healing in Chinese medicine. This comprises an introduction to the five key areas in Chinese medicine, including the basic theories of Chinese medicine, methods of diagnosis and treatment, acupuncture & moxibustion, Chinese medicinal materials, and Chinese herbal formulary.
In the second part of the course, students will learn and experience how CM is being delivered in a real-life context. They will be arranged 8 hours of attachment at a Chinese Medicine Clinic or a CM service provider. The course written assignment and group presentation will be linked with this work experience and theories and debates from lectures and seminars.
8. Modern Technology in Health and Social Services
This technologically-driven course is designed for senior health and social service practitioners, who have responsibilities and resources for innovating existing service and products to achieve higher organisational efficiency and user satisfaction.
The course is in two parts. The first part will provide students with knowledge and insights for addressing the gaps in society and technology interface, particularly for older persons. Students will be introduced to existing and emerging assistive technologies and equipment for delivering care to older persons and other vulnerable populations groups such as telemonitoring, telehealth, assistive, ICT technologies and other gerontechnological devices. Students will also be exposed to cutting-edge technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, and examine potential benefits and risks associated with the health and social services profession.
In the second part of the course, students will learn to lead an effective innovation process using human-centred design method and gain hands-on experience in assistive technology and automation design. This part of the course will further expose students to relevant topics such as user experience design, home automation and machine ethics to equip them with the skills and knowledge necessary for developing effective healthcare services and products. They will have real-time experience in harvesting and applying big data in decisions about care delivery relating to the maintenance or improvement of physical and mental health through diagnosis, treatment and disease prevention. Thus, this course utilises problem-based learning approach. Students will gain ample hands-on design experience with technology.
Project (6 credits)
9. Health and Social Services Project
This course aims to facilitate students to integrate and apply the knowledge and skills acquired through different courses of the program. They are expected to complete a dissertation in the form of either a ‘critical literature review’, an ‘empirical research study’, or a ‘work-based project’. After several introductory sessions on the requirements of the project and methods for studying a chosen issue, students need to work out a project proposal and present it in class. This is an independent study, and students are expected to seek advice from their supervisor to produce a final project.