Social Work (SWK)
S501 Professional Social Work at the Masters Level: An Immersion (3 cr.) This foundation course provides an overview of social work including the definition, scope, history, ethics and values of the profession. This course will provide basic orientation to the available resources and expectations of graduate education in general, and the MSW program, in particular, all within the framework of the adult learner model. Students will develop basic communication, self-assessment, and reflection skills necessary for success in the MSW program. Students will have an opportunity to survey various fields of practice and will begin to identify personal learning goals for their MSW education as well as develop a commitment to lifelong learning as a part of professional practice.
S502 Research I (3 cr.) This foundation research course assists students in developing the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of social work practice. Emphasis is placed upon knowledge of qualitative and quantitative designs, methodologies, and techniques that inform students of best practices in social work. Students will recognize the impact of ethnicity, gender, age, and sexual orientation on the research process and be able to critically review published studies with attention to researcher bias.
S503 Human Behavior and the Social Environment I (3 cr.) This course provides content on the reciprocal relationships between human behavior and social environments. It includes empirically based theories and knowledge that focus on the interactions between and within diverse populations of individuals, groups, organizations, societal institutions, and global systems. Knowledge of biological, psychological, sociological, cultural, and spiritual development across the life span is included. Students will learn to critically analyze micro and macro theories and explore ways in which theories can be used to structure professional activities. Concepts such as person-in-environment are used to examine the ways in which social systems promote or deter human well being, social, and economic justice.
S504 Professional Practice Skills I (3 cr.) This foundation practice course focuses on basic generalist theory and skills that are necessary when working with a wide variety of client systems: individuals, families, small groups, communities, and organizations. Students are expected to demonstrate competent use of the following skills: attending, establishing rapport, reflecting, summarizing, exploring, questioning, contracting, and establishing clear well-formed goals. In this course students will have opportunities to continue learning about themselves and will examine their personal values and any conflict between personal and professional values so the professional practice standards can be upheld.
S505 Social Policy Analysis and Practice (3 cr.) This foundation policy course will focus on using several policy analysis frameworks to analyze current social policies and programs both at the state and federal levels and to develop policies that increase social and economic justice. Students will be expected to develop a range of policy practice skills to influence policy development within legislative, administrative, community, political, and economic arenas.
S513 Human Behavior in the Social Environment II (3 cr.) This course builds upon 5503 (HBSE I) and focuses on further development of theories and their application to practice. Specific content will be linked to the concentrations selected by the students.
S514 Practice with Individuals and Families I (3 cr.) This course builds on the practice theories, principles, and skills introduced in the Professional Practice Skills course, and is designed to prepare students for competent social work practice with individuals and families. A strengths perspective will be emphasized, and students will be introduced to the fundamental components of the task-centered and solution-focused approaches to practice. The transtheoretical model of change will be presented, and students will develop skills, which will empower individuals and families to engage in the process of change. Students will be prepared to complete assessments and to use intervention skills that will serve diverse populations with specific attention to gender, class, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation.
S515 Social Policy and Services II (3 cr.) A group of courses covering topics or content including social problems, special populations, particular social service delivery areas, and social indicators that predict areas of future social policy transformations.
S516 Social Work Macro Practice (3 cr.) This course is concerned with helping communities and other social units to empower themselves and eradicate oppressive situations and practices through networking, political participation, leadership development, mobilization, utilization of resources, and other strategies and techniques.
S555 Social Work Practicum I (3 cr.) This course is an educationally directed practice experience in social work practice settings with approved field instructors; 320 clock hours. (240 hours for advanced standing students)
S623 Practice Research Integrative Seminar I (3 cr.) This course furthers the knowledge, skills, and values students develop in the foundation-year research course through using research to inform and guide practice at various system levels. Students will apply their knowledge and skills in research to evaluate practice or program effectiveness in their concentrations, using research methods that are sensitive to consumers' needs and clients' race, gender, sexual orientation, and additional aspects important to effective and ethical research.
S632 Child Welfare Practice I: Working with Children Impacted by Violence in the Family (3 cr.) This course is designed to provide practice skills for students working with children and families impacted by abuse, neglect or family violence. The course is designed to cover the scope, causes, and consequences of child physical, emotional, and sexual abuse and neglect and applications of this knowledge in a wide range of settings that deal with children and families as well as formal child protection services. Students will learn about the dynamics and indicators of maltreatments, etiology of child abuse and neglect, assessing risk, the continuum of intervention from prevention through intervention and future planning, out-of-home placement considerations, and the issues impacting particular oppressed and underserved populations. The focus of this course will be on how to work effectively with clients to achieve goals of safety, permanency and well-being.
S651 Social Work Practicum II: Mental Health/Addictions (4 cr.) Agency-based field experience for Mental Health/Addictions concentration students; 256 clock hours.
S652 Social Work Practicum III: Mental Health/Addictions (5 hours) Agency-based field experience for Mental Health/Addictions concentration students: 386 clock hours.
S661 Executive Leadership Practice (3 cr.) (Variable title course) This course addresses administrative, management, leadership, and supervisory skills necessary for leadership practice. Included are staff hiring, supervision, evaluation, and termination; working with boards and volunteers, leadership styles, strategic planning, and current best practices in administration.
S662 Fiscal Management, Marketing and Resource Development (3 cr.) This course consists of three modules designed to develop core skills in fiscal management (which will include issues of budgeting, understanding balance sheets, audits, and theories of accounting); resource development (including fund raising, grant writing and personnel policies); and marketing for social work leaders.
S663 Leveraging Organizations, Communities, and Political Systems (3 cr.) This course focuses on knowledge and skills essential for understanding, analyzing, and application in organizations, communities and political arenas. Such knowledge and skills include, but are not limited to, organizational theories, structures, and processes; examination and application of rural, urban, and virtual community models, themes and practices; and understanding and involvement in political, social action, and social change interventions and empowerment practices.
S665 Designing Transformational Programs (3 cr.) This course focuses on alternative, transformational models of strategic, community, and program planning. Featured development models center on collaboration, cultural competence, empowerment, and social justice. The course will address advanced grant writing, identification of funding and other resources, and philanthropic trends within a variety of social service delivery systems. It will move beyond a focus on the technology of program development to examine planning as a vehicle for designing organizational, community, and social change.
S682 Assessment in Mental Health and Addictions (3 cr.) Recognizing the social, political, legal, and ethical implications of assessment, students will critically examine various conceptual frameworks and apply bio-psychosocial and strengths perspectives to understand its multidimensional aspects. Students learn to conduct sophisticated mental status and lethality risk interviews, engage in strengths and assets discovery, and apply the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association and other classification schemes in formulating assessment hypotheses. They gain an understanding of the application of several relevant assessment instruments and learn to evaluate their relevance for service to at- risk populations, including persons affected by mental health and addictions issues. Students learn to collaborate with a diverse range of consumers and other professionals in developing meaningful assessments upon which to plan goals, intervention strategies, and means for evaluation.
S683 Community-Based Practice in Mental Health/ Addiction (3 cr.) This course will focus on a wide range of community-based services provided for people with severe mental illness and/or severe addiction problems. Special attention will be given to strength-based, client-driven, and evidence-based practice models. Content will include community- based services in areas of case management, employment, housing, illness management, family, dual disorder treatment, and consumer self-help. This course will also examine a variety of issues related to providing community-based services such as ethical and legal issues, quality and continuity of care, cultural competency, organizational and financial factors, and other relevant policy and service issues.
S685 Mental Health/Addictions Practice with Individuals and Families (3 cr.) This course will concentrate on knowledge, values and ethics, skills, and judgment necessary for competent analysis and use of various evidence and research based, best practice theories for work with individuals and families. An orientation to intervention will emphasize assessment from a strengths perspective, hypothesis formation, intervention planning, therapeutic communication, and evaluation. Additionally, the course will cover such topics as risk and resilience, and recovery and relapse prevention.
S686 Social Work Practice: Addictions (3 cr.) The purpose of this course is to provide learners with knowledge and skills relevant to various aspects of social work practice in prevention, intervention, and treatment of selected addictions. Students draw upon previous and concurrent learning experiences and integrate values, knowledge, and skills acquired in other social work courses with the values, knowledge, and skills characteristic of addictions practice. The course assists students to develop a multidimensional understanding of prevention, intervention, and treatment needs of diverse populations and associated social work practice principles, methods, and skills. Students explore the relationships between and among addiction and socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, physical and mental ability, and other socio-environmental factors of vulnerability. Consistent with strengths and ecosystems perspectives, students consider the impact of social environments, physical settings, community contexts, and political realities that support or inhibit the emergence of addiction problems.
S687 Mental Health and Addiction Practice with Groups (3 cr.) The course is designed to enable students to become more knowledgeable and skillful as group worker with clients who have mental health/addiction issues. The phases of group development and intervention during the various group work stages provide the course framework. The course will focus on working with individuals and families in groups that are therapeutic, growth producing and life enhancing. A number of theoretical perspectives will be incorporated such as cognitive behavior theory, communications theory, behavior theory, and interpersonal theory.
S690 Independent Study (1-6 cr.) Approved by an academic advisor and the director of the M.S.W. program, this course is an opportunity to engage in a self-directed study of an area related to the school's curriculum in which no formal course is available.
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