Ageing and health programs meet a growing community need
 |
If you are looking to enhance your employment prospects in the aged care and health sector, Macquarie University offers a comprehensive suite of postgraduate programs in ageing and health.
Aged care and health will become increasingly more important over the next fifty years. It has been estimated that by 2050 there will be more old Australians (people aged 60 plus) than young Australians, with the number of those aged 80 plus expected to hit the 2.75 million mark.
The current global figure of 580 million people aged 60 years and over is expected to rise to 1 billion by 2020, 75 per cent of whom will be in developing countries.
Some of the questions that students will consider in the ageing and health programs include: What are the implications of having so many old and so few young in the population? Will longer life mean worse health? Or will we see substantial improvements in disability-free years and the increase of boundaries of active and productive middle age? With increasing pressure on government budgets, how will scarce health resources be best allocated and who will decide what's best?
The ageing and health program will be of interest to:
- Health care professionals including medical practitioners, nurses, and allied health professionals who are currently working in, or interested in working in, aged health care
- Policymakers, policy analysts and advocates in public, private, and community-based sectors
- Managers, owners, and staff of aged care facilities
- Recent undergraduates in related disciplines such as health studies, nursing, psychology, sociology, demography and management.
Suite of programs
The Ageing and Health program includes: a Postgraduate Certificate which can be completed in one year (part-time); a Postgraduate Diploma which can be completed in one and a half years (part-time); and the Master of Ageing and Health which can be completed in one year (full-time) or the part-time equivalent.
Students have the option to transfer between all three postgraduate programs.
Aims of the program
The postgraduate program in Ageing and Health will provide students with a multidisciplinary approach to this issue of increasing social concern. The course aims to give students a sound theoretical and practical grounding in the area.
By the end of the program graduates will have:
- an appreciation of ageing and health as a diverse human experience mediated by individual, social, local, and global contexts
- a reflective and critical interdisciplinary/multidisciplinary approach to ageing and health
- an understanding of 'ageing' and 'health' as complex and contested concepts
- an understanding of some of the contemporary policy issues at the forefront of ageing and health.
Career opportunities
Macquarie University's postgraduate Ageing and Health program is designed to provide graduates with a flexible range of knowledge and skills relevant to a number of health-related occupations. Possible areas of employment include: aged-care management and administration; healthcare and social planning; community development; market research; health policy and health promotion.
For further information email Dr Elizabeth Latimer Hill elatimerhill@els.mq.edu.au or Dr Lindie Clark lindie.clark@mq.edu.au or visit www.chiro.mq.edu.au/postgrad/fsapplications.htm#PGhealth