Learning in partnership

October 2004

Monash medical students are helping community organisations meet the needs of disadvantaged communities while learning about the individual needs of these communities through an innovative new program.

Making lunch for the road: Second-year medical student Ms Deb Farrell, centre, with Saverio (left) and Phu. Photo: Greg Ford

The Community Partnerships Program (CPP), designed to broaden students' understanding of the social and economic context of health and healthcare, is part of the new curriculum for the Bachelor of Medicine/Bachelor of Surgery at Monash. It was formed through a partnership between the university and five community organisations -- Anglicare, the Brotherhood of St Laurence, the City of Casey, Melbourne Citymission and Wesley Mission.

"Working directly with a community welfare agency for one day a week over two semesters, the students have the opportunity to observe welfare service delivery at grass roots level and hopefully to make a contribution to the host agency," says the program's coordinator, Ms Susan McCallum.

Second-year medical student Ms Deb Farrell, who spent her placement with Melbourne Citymission's Disability Services, says her practical involvement at one of Citymission's supported accommodation houses taught her an enormous amount about issues that affect people in the real world.

"Some of my experiences challenged and confronted me, but it was a very rewarding time," she says.

Ms Farrell's project was to organise an overnight trip to Daylesford in country Victoria for the residents of one of the houses -- five young men in their twenties, all with an intellectual disability.

"The boys had never been on a holiday as a house group, so I wanted to provide an experience that would generate camaraderie and goodwill for the clients and the staff and meet the house goals of encouraging participation and promoting independent living skills," she says.

Action

For information on the Community Partnerships Program, go to www.med.monash.edu/cmhse/curriculum/communitypartnerships.html.