I recently studied the ‘Social Model for Health and Wellbeing in Primary and Community Care’.  This course was funded through Skill Up, the flexible skills fund that supports people to learn new or build on current skills.

Although I have studied at University level before, I had not experienced studying at Queens University.  I was initially concerned about finding the time to travel to Belfast to access the library and other resources, however I soon learnt that most of the library can be accessed online and as the course was fully on-line, I was able to study this course completely remotely.  I was excited about studying at Queens as I am aware it has an excellent reputation, and the course content, material and delivery was exactly that, professional, valuable, challenging, informative and inspiring.  Interactions and discussions with other professionals as facilitated throughout the course enabled interesting and diverse perspectives to be explored and learnt from.

Currently on a career break from Social Work, I found the course increased my knowledge and skills across very relevant areas, including motivational interviewing, intersectionality awareness and the social model of health.  Having recently gained new employment, I have no doubt that the skills learnt and refreshed on this course will be highly beneficial in my role.  I would wholly recommend studying this course and would be very interested in further study at Queens University.

Q1.Your reasons for choosing to study this programme?

I have working in Belfast Health and Social Care Trust for over 20 years. Over the past few years my career has changed from working as an Occupational Therapist in the Trust to working as an Involvement and Partnership Officer. This means I support staff and service users/carers to engage with the Trust about designing and delivering better health and social care services.

I also work in partnership with community organisations regarding health across the City. I support a range of organisations and councils to promote better health outcome. For example, access to health workshops, Dementia awareness events.

The Social Model for Health & Wellbeing in Primary & Community Care short course appealed to me as I felt it would support and increase my understanding of the social model of health. It has helped be better understand the social determinants of health and how large health services can impact health outcomes better. 

Q2. Your experience of studying with us at the time?

I found the course both challenging, enlightening and rewarding. Challenging because I have not studied at this level for some years and never at Queens. So negotiating the electronic systems and just stepping back in to reading articles, attending lectures, analysing material and then writing essays was challenging. But I really enjoyed the challenge and the course. So rewarding to be learning again.

Enlightening to better understand myself in my work role and better understand the breadth of health challenges people face on a daily basis. But to also hear from others on the course, their experiences, knowledge and challenges.

Rewarding, personally to be studying again.

Q3. Your career path (whether existing or planned for the future?

I have had a varied career not sure it could be described as a pathway… on leaving school I studied dance and became a professional (contemporary) dancer. I later returned to study Access level to gain entry to university to study Occupational Therapy. Later I returned to University of Ulster to complete my Masters. As an Occupational Therapist I have worked in both Mental and Physical Health. More recently moving to work in the PPI team in Belfast Trust.

I had always thought I would move into research and did almost….. Studying again has made me revisit this pathway and reconsider research and doing my PhD as a serious option.                                                                         

Thank you to Queens University.