TEACHING COMMUNITY PSYCHIATRY IN AN INTEGRATED CURRICULUM - EXPERIENCE WITH THE COMMUNITY AND FAMILY CASE-STUDY (CFCS) GROUP

The community and family case study (CFCS) is a school programme in the community-based integrated curriculum of undergraduate medical education of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). It is conceived as synthesizing both clinical and social aspects of patient care. Since the CFCS programme implemented contract learning strategies, the programme was found to be more interesting. It also stimulates active learning. The author, as a group supervisor, describes his experience of running a group of 14 students; of these, eight selected psychiatric cases for their care. Based on the criteria set by the eight students, 62.5-87.5% of them achieved their learning objective.