Community Partnerships

In Year 2 of the five-year curriculum all students will undertake Community Partnership placements for one day per week across one semester. Community Partnerships is a component of Theme 1, Personal and Professional Development but also reinforces concepts from Theme 2, Population, Society, Health and Illness. Students will be placed in a community welfare agency; community health centre; disadvantaged secondary college; or local council service. Placements will be structured around a specific project or activity. Placements are non-medical and are designed to focus student attention on the social and economic context of health and health care. Current community partners include the Brotherhood of St Laurence, City of Monash, Inner South Community Health and Monash Secondary College. For more information on our 20 partners, please visit the website listed below.

The overall objective of the Community Partnerships Program is for students to:

• Developed a perspective on issues of social equity and justice, but particularly as they relate to the practice of medicine;

This objective encompasses the following key placement goals for students to:

• Develop an understanding of social and public policy and how it impacts on peoples' lives;
• Develop knowledge of the welfare system and its relevance to medicine;
• Develop an appreciation of the operational philosophy and service delivery components of key agencies working in the areas of social action, social justice and advocacy;
• Developed their understanding of the 'whole person' and in particular the social and economic context of health and illness.

Visit the Community Partnerships website