Community Psychology vs Public Health Approaches

6252 Words26 Pages
They treat mental illness as a social rather than individual problem They prefer prevention rather than cure. Practitioners unable to translate words into action and it was hampered by political red tape. Has demonstrated considerable effectiveness in preventing many diseases as well as socially harmful behaviours. Community psychology in South Africa The appeal of community psychology lies in its promise of a more socially accountable practice. Community psychology became popular in South Africa in the 1980s, when together with the struggle for democracy, psychologists began looking at community psychology as an answer to the feeling powerlessness they felt due to large scale political upheaval. community psychology continues to develop and progress in South Africa and the broad principles of community psychology informs the development of community-based agencies operating in diverse fields such as education, violence prevention, labour, health and community policing. Models of community psychology different models of community psychology − the mental health, ecological, organisational and social action models − and discuss two of these (the mental health and social action models) in greater detail. Whereas the mental health model focuses on prevention, immunisation against risk for mental illness and skills-enhancement, the social action model holds political mobilisation and socio-economic parity as the pre-requisites for positive psychosocial health. In South Africa, like in the United States a great deal of convergence has occurred between the two models. . Both models view their target to be a geographical community that needs to be either empowered, mobilised or protected from further mental illness. In both arrangements the community is construed to be a victim that is in need of expert help, although neither model has attained complete clarity on
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