2017: Advancing First Nations Health and a Nobel Peace Prize

188 NEW STUDENTS

60 STUDENTS FROM OVERSEAS

STUDENTS REPRESENTING 20 COUNTRIES 2017 was a significant year for the MPH, with a strategic review, development of new curriculum on First Nations Health and academic staff member Dr Tilman Ruff winning a Nobel Peace Prize for his campaigning for nuclear disarmament.

In an ongoing refresh to ensure the program was delivering contemporary, relevant learning outcomes, a strategic review of all subjects was undertaken with the “University’s core mission being to teach, to graduate students who go on to pursue meaningful careers and make important contributions to society.”

The areas of strategic focus were:

• Quality: Delivery of the highest quality learning, teaching through regular reporting, monitoring, review and oversight. • Student experience: Ensure the highest quality MSPGH student experience • Innovation and development: Support innovation and development in teaching and learning. • Professional development: Support and promote teaching excellence that is recognised and valued by MSPGH. • Collaboration internal and external: Build a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration in MSPGH. Develop knowledge partnerships with international educational institutions and industry.

Based on employer feedback regarding knowledge and skills application, Prioritising and Planning in Public Health was introduced as a core subject into the program. The program was developed with reference to international public health standards to ensure curriculum and learning outcomes were benchmarked globally.

Dr Sheila Scopis joined MSPGH to work with Alister Thorpe on the development of videos focused on leadership in Indigenous Health as well as developing a new subject in Indigenous Health called ‘Indigenous Health in a Global Context’. Professor Shaun Ewen, Professor Marcia Langton, Professor Richard Chenhall, Professor Janet MacCalman and Professor Ian Anderson (the former head of the Centre for Health and Society, the predecessor of the Centre for Health Equity) all contributed advice in developing the Indigenous Health curriculum for the MPH.

Natalie Ironfield was selected for The Aurora Indigenous Scholars International Study Tour in October and November 2017. This study tour taking Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander university students and graduates to visit leading universities in the UK and US. The group of successful applicants left Australia in late October 2017 and spent approximately three weeks in the US visiting Berkeley, Stanford, Harvard, Columbia and NYU, and approximately ten days in the UK at Cambridge, Oxford, London Business School and the London School of Economics. The initiativeprovides opportunities for students to gain insight into the realities of undertaking postgraduate study at these leading institutions and involves meetings with key academics and administrators at each university, as well as current students in the areas of the participants’ interest.

A highlight for Kate Chalmers, MPH and Past President of the MPGSHA was the International Student Night. Again, a wonderful celebration of community and diversity, a theme that runs throughout the 10 years of the MPH at Melbourne. Kate cites with pride the development of skills programs for students such as EndNote training course that is still running today. Following her MPH, Kate became an integral member of the Teaching & Learning team working as a Project Officer in the Capstone, PPU and Public Health in Practice electives. Kate Chalmers

The challenges of the pandemic have exacerbated the many, growing challenges of Mental Health. For Dr Stephen Carbone embarking on an MPH ignited a passion and focus on mental health promotion.

“After graduating with a medical degree in 1985, I embarked on the fairly traditional path of becoming a clinician and GP with a special interest in mental health. While I enjoyed working on the frontline in primary care, I found myself being drawn towards exploring the ‘bigger picture’ side of things. Following a degree in social work I became involved in mental health policy including the privilege of working on service reforms such as the development of Orygen and headspace youth mental health services. I then started the Master of Public Health course at the University of Melbourne. I decided to do the course because it seemed to bring all my interests together under the one umbrella – understanding the biological, psychological, social, cultural and economic factors that shape our wellbeing and the programs, services, policies, laws and societal changes that can create better health and mental health outcomes. While completing the course, I landed a job at VicHealth and then Beyond Blue where I was able to apply the skills I was learning in the course to the real-life world of mental health promotion. Mental health promotion is basically the mental health equivalent of health promotion, and it is more broadly focused on promoting positive mental health, preventing mental ill-health, and improving mental health literacy. Undertaking the MPH allowed me to see a major gap in the way we were approaching mental health and even public health in Australia. In the physical health realm, we’ve been focusing on health promotion and illness prevention for decades, while the promotion of mental wellbeing and the prevention of mental health conditions is barely on the mental health or even the public health radar. And so, I decided to establish a new mental health promotion charity called Prevention United focused on preventing mental health conditions through efforts to modify the underlying risk and protective factors that contribute to mental ill-health. I absolutely loved doing the MPH at the University of Melbourne. It was one of the most useful courses I’ve done.” Dr Stephen Carbone, Australia

OUR FIRST NOBEL PEACE PRIZE: DR TILMAN RUFF

Whilst many of you may know that SDG 16 is Peace and Justice, many may not know that Dr Tilman Ruff, an infectious diseases and public health physician, with a particular focus on the urgent planetary health imperative to eradicate nuclear weapons, established with others, the International Campaign Against Nuclear Weapons( (ICAN) and won the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in nuclear disarmament.

Tilman’s work addresses the broader public health dimensions of nuclear technology and is featured in this moving film from the National Portrait Gallery.