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 th e community-based integrated curriculum of undergraduate medical educa tion of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). It is conceived as synthesizi ng both clinical and social aspects of patient care. Since the CFCS pr ogramme implemented contract learning strategies, the programme was fo und to be more interesting. It also stimulates active learning. The au thor, as a group supervisor, describes his experience of running a gro up of 14 students; of these, eight selected psychiatric cases for thei r care. Based on the criteria set by the eight students, 62.5-87.5% of them achieved their learning objective.