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Your upfront cost: $0
Duration
12 weeks
Study method
100% Online
Available loans
- HECS-HELP
- FEE-HELP
Assessments
100% online
Prior study
Not required
Start dates
- 31 Jul 2023
The third university established in Victoria, La Trobe University has a diverse community of more than 38,000 students and staff. Its commitment to excellence in teaching and research prepares students to make a bold and positive impact in today's global community. La Trobe provides Open Universities Australia with its core tenets, entrepreneurship and sustainability.
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QS Ranking 2023
20
Times Higher Education Ranking 2023
16
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Subject details
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- • The expanding terrain of mental disorder.
- • Deinstitutionalisation and community care.
- • Mental health policy reform and human rights.
- • Inequalities in mental illness.
- • The depression “epidemic”.
- • Family caregiving.
- • Subjective experiences of mental illness.
Others
Prerequisites: Students must have completed 30 credit points of Level two subjects. Past La Trobe University students who have previously completed SOC2MIN (Mind, "Madness" and Society: An Introduction to the Sociology of Mental Illness) are ineligible to enrol in this subject.
Additional requirements
No additional requirements
The apparent rise in mental illness is a significant contemporary problem. In Australia, public attention has focused on the epidemic of anxiety and depressive disorders; high rates of suicide among males in rural areas; the mental health of Indigenous people, refugees, and youth; and the effects of illicit drug-use, especially ice. Can we claim that people are more distressed today, than in times past? If so, is this linked to particular changes in our social and material conditions, or is it a consequence of how we define and respond to mental illness and emotional suffering? This subject provides an introduction to sociological perspectives on mental illness. Topics include social responses to mental illness (asylum building, deinstitutionalisation and community care); the growth of psychiatry and other mental health professions; structural inequalities in mental health related to class, gender, ethnicity; the micro-politics of service provision; the rise of therapy culture; and subjective experiences of mental illness.
- Research assignment - 1,200-words (30%)
- Essay - 2,000-words Essay topics related to key social "problems". (50%)
- Online quizzes - equivalent 800-words. Multiple-choice questions on weekly required readings (20%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).