Welcome HEALers: Getting Started

Hello HEALers:

I write in anticipation of the start to our HEAL MEd on September 6th.  We will spend a bit of time getting to know each other as we move into the course and program discussions.

The Community MEd programs are very much about capitalizing on the interests and strengths of the participants.  We seek to support one another and learn from each.  The HEAL MEd is a program concerned with Health Education AND Active living, so don't be too surprised if we try to do our learning as actively as possible.

My role is to provide the framework for our learning and to give instruction, provide feedback and make assessments in keeping with graduate, scholarly expectations.  I provide course readings, not as the definitive, authoritative statements on the fields of health education, health promotion and even of health care, but as discussion starters and prompts for your own thinking and writing and, hopefully, in terms of the relevance these readings have for your respective fields of professional practice.  As a graduate student, and as a person motivated to engage in graduate work when there are no doubt so many other pursuits that could occupy your time (at much less expense!), it is important that you take ownership of this HEAL program and see it as providing opportunities for personal and professional growth.  Use the assigned course readings as indicators of further reading choices on your part.  Share what you have read through our course assignments, such as the personal blogs, and let's make this HEAL cohort into a community of well-informed practitioners.

I've attached PDFs of the course-listed readings for our first session.  Note that there is also Part one of the course text, Raphael's "Social Determinants", to which we will refer.  I've included an additional reading – one of my own writings on "Operating on a child's heart" which I'll use to exemplify the structure of the major paper.  Don't be too mesmerized by these readings.  Part of our course work will be to become discerning readers of academic texts.  So just peruse these pieces in the meantime and we'll talk more about how to address them when we meet.

I look forward to seeing you on the 6th at 4:30 (SUR 3340).

Cheers,

Stephen

Dr. Stephen Smith
Associate Dean Academic
Faculty of Education
Simon Fraser University