Courses
Masters
Social Work is a dynamic profession concerned with the changing needs of people and society. To respond to these needs, the School of Social Work curriculum undergoes a continual review by faculty, students, and members of the practice community. Students must complete a minimum of 60 credit hours of graduate level course work to meet the minimum requirements of the Master of Social Work degree. All students complete a common 15 credit Foundation Curriculum and a 15 credit Intermediate Curriculum that emphasize a generalist perspective for social work practice. The Intermediate Curriculum includes a one semester practicum at a minimum of 320 clock hours. Following that, students complete a Concentration Curriculum that prepares them for advanced practice in child welfare, school social work, health, leadership, mental health, and addictions. The Concentration Practicum of at least 640 clock hours is usually completed over two semesters. All Foundation Curriculum course work must be completed before students are eligible to enroll in nay required courses in the Concentration Curriculum.
- SWK-S 501 Professional Social Work at the Master's 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 M.S.W. 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 M.S.W. Program. Students will have an opportunity to survey various fields of practice and will begin to identify personal learning goals for their M.S.W. education as well as develop a commitment to lifelong learning as a part of professional practice.
- SWK-S 502 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 on 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.
- SWK-S 503 Human Behavior in 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, families, organizations, communities, societal institutions, and global systems. Knowledge of biological, psychological, sociological, cultural, and spiritual development across the lifespan is included. Students learn to analyze critically 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 and social and economic justice.
- SWK-S 504 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.
- SWK-S 505 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.
- SWK-S 513 Human Behavior and the Social Environment II (3 cr.) This course builds upon S503 and focuses on developing further knowledge of human behavior theories and their application to practice. Students will link course content to the concentration that the student has selected.
- SWK-S 514 Practice with Individuals, Families and Groups I (3 cr.) This course builds on the practice theories, principles, and skills introduced in S504 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 that 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, and ethnicity.
- SWK-S 515 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.
- SWK-S 516 Practice with Organizations, Communities, and Societies II (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.
- SWK-S 517 Assessment in Mental Health and Addictions (3 cr.) Recognizing the social, political, legal, and ethical implications of assessment, students enrolled in this course 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.
- SWK-S 555 Social Work Practicum I (3 cr.) The M.S.W. Social Work Practicum I is an educationally directed practice experience under the direct supervision of an approved field instructor. The assigned faculty liaison oversees the practicum to ensure that course objectives have been met. The practicum provides opportunities for the application and integration of classroom concepts and principles for the development of core skills in generalist social work practice with selected social systems using a strengths perspective. It builds upon the knowledge and skills learned and developed during the immersion and intermediate course work of the program. Learning opportunities emphasize the values and ethics of the profession, foster the integration of empirical and practice-based knowledge, and promote the development of professional competence. Field education is systematically designed, supervised, coordinated, and evaluated on the basis of criteria by which students demonstrate the achievement of program objectives. The Field Practice Seminar is designed to assist students in integrating classroom learning with the experience of an internship. Students will also be introduced to assessment systems including the DSM and SWOT. The seminar provides a supportive setting for students to discuss practice issues raised in the field placement related to their Learning Agreement and field experience. This involves recognizing/exploring professional and personal biases, discussing ethical dilemmas and supervisory issues, and increasing cross-cultural competencies.
- SWK-S 600 Elective (3 cr.) Electives Vary in subject matter. Scheduling of these courses will be announced prior to semester registration.
- SWK-S 616 Social Work Practice in Schools (3 cr.) This advanced level practice course is designed to provide students with an overview of contemporary social work practice in school settings. Specific topical areas include the historical and contemporary contexts of social work service in school settings, legal mandates for social work practice in schools, social policies and trends in education affecting school settings and social work practice in schools, preventive and intervention methods and roles applicable to diverse populations in school settings, research issues and practice effectiveness, and multiculturalism and diversity issues in social work practice in schools.
- SWK-S 618 Social Policy and Services (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.
- SWK-S 619 Social Work Practice with Children and Adolescents (3 cr.) This course is designed to develop and broaden student knowledge and skill in direct practice with children and adolescents. Social work practice will be examined within the context of meta-frameworks that include developmental stages/tasks, sexual development and orientation, gender issues, family context, culture, larger environmental systems, discrimination/oppression, and legal rights and responsibilities. Emphasis will be placed on practice methods including assessment, interviewing, comparative treatment models, and practice with special populations.
- SWK-S 623 Practice Research Integrative Seminar I (3 cr.) This course furthers the knowledge, skills, and values students develop in the foundation-year research course. 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, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and additional aspects important to effective and ethnicity research.
- SWK-S 632 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 the goals of safety, permanency, and well-being.
- SWK-S 633 Child Welfare Practice II: Working with Diverse and Transitioning Families (3 cr.) This course will focus on the experiences of children and families in the child welfare system. Content will include interventions with families through all stages of change including preparation for change, separation and loss, the changed family system, reintegration as children transition into a family, and adolescents transitioning into independent living. Content will include the impact on families when the natural cycle of family development is disrupted. Special consideration will be given to various family types including adoptive, foster care, kinship, extended, single parent, multigenerational, and homosexual families. Practice content will emphasize strengths based and family-centered approaches and include knowledge and skill development to help children and families work through their family and personal crisis and grief in a timely manner to achieve permanency for children in safe and nurturing environments within 12 months after separation.
- SWK-S 634 Community-Based Practice with Children and Families (3 cr.) This course will examine the development and implementation of a wide range of prevention and intervention strategies provided at the community level. Special attention will be given to the philosophy of empowerment-oriented and client-driven service models. The course will explore the community as a resource and discuss strategies of collaboration and advocacy to enhance the well-being of children and families. Issues explored will include services for families and children to prevent out-of-home placement or involvement in other formal child protection/juvenile justice services, such as models of community-building, youth development, and family group conferencing/restorative justice. This course will also provide content on mutual aid and self-help groups to support and educate children and families on issues such as parenting, domestic violence, and abuse.
- SWK-S 651 Concentration Practicum II (4 cr.) Taken with S652, Practicum III. These courses together provide an in-depth practicum experience for M.S.W. Concentration students under the guidance and supervision of an approved field instructor. A faculty field liaison oversees the practica. Students complete both courses in the same agency although the students may use multiple departments or programs as sites for learning experiences. Practicum II and III build upon and deepen the practicum experiences and classroom knowledge gained in the intermediate year. The practicum courses provide students with experiences in the aforementioned curricular emphasis areas, which support the processes of synthesis, application, critical analysis, and evaluation of knowledge using a strengths perspective. The field practice seminar integrates concentration classroom learning with the experience of an internship. Students have the opportunity to apply their basic knowledge of group process as well as practice group leadership skills. This seminar will assist students in the identification and examination of significant practice and professional issues that occur in the last phase of the M.S.W. Program. A major instructional goal of the practicum is to increase students' competence in understanding and dealing with cross-cultural issues. Information and resources on diversity are discussed and applied in seminar and field placement, and students are encouraged to further explore and increase their own competence in dealing with cross-cultural issues. It is expected that students will develop an awareness of their own privilege in relationship to their client systems. Further, students are expected to use advocacy skills in a cultural context and carry these skills into action in their agencies and the wider community.
- SWK-S 652 Practicum III (5 cr.) Taken with S651, Concentration Practicum II. These courses together provide an in-depth practicum experience for M.S.W. Concentration students under the guidance and supervision of an approved field instructor. A faculty field liaison oversees the practica. Students complete both courses in the same agency although the students may use multiple departments or programs as sites for learning experiences. Practicum II and III build upon and deepen the practicum experiences and classroom knowledge gained in the intermediate year. The practicum courses provide students with experiences in the aforementioned curricular emphasis areas, which support the processes of synthesis, application, critical analysis, and evaluation of knowledge using a strengths perspective. The field practice seminar integrates concentration classroom learning with the experience of an internship. Students have the opportunity to apply their basic knowledge of group process as well as practice group leadership skills. This seminar will assist students in the identification and examination of significant practice and professional issues that occur in the last phase of the M.S.W. Program. A major instructional goal of the practicum is to increase students' competence in understanding and dealing with cross-cultural issues. Information and resources on diversity are discussed and applied in seminar and field placement, and students are encouraged to further explore and increase their own competence in dealing with cross-cultural issues. It is expected that students will develop an awareness of their own privilege in relationship to their client systems. Further, students are expected to use advocacy skills in a cultural context and carry these skills into action in their agencies and the wider community.
- SWK-S 661 Executive Leadership Practice (3 cr.) 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.
- SWK-S 662 Fiscal Management, Marketing, and Resource Development (3 cr.) This course consists of three modules designed to develop core skills in fiscal management (including 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.
- SWK-S 663 Leveraging Organizations, Communities, and Political Systems (3 cr.) This course focuses on the 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.
- SWK-S 664 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.
- SWK-S 672 Families, Theories, and Culture (3 cr.) This course is designed to enhance student ability to assess and intervene with families in a culturally sensitive way from a strengths-oriented perspective. It examines the cultural context of families from a multidimensional perspective including race, ethnicity, age, gender, sexual orientation, religion, education, economics, and regional background. This course overviews the major theories of family intervention and discusses how students can apply family theory into practice situations.
- SWK-S 673 Couples and Families Interventions I (3 cr.) This course provides in-depth discussion of ways to intervene with individuals on family-of-origin issues, couples at different stages of family development, parents with children at different ages, and the family as part of a larger social context utilizing a strengths perspective.
- SWK-S 674 Couples and Family Interventions II (3 cr.) This course emphasizes family interventions on a variety of family challenges often seen in family agencies (substance abuse, violence, physical illness, mental illness, family life cycle disruption, etc.). The course reviews assessment and intervention strategies and how to build skills with a variety of family issues.
- SWK-S 680 Special Social Work Practicum (1-9 cr.) An educationally directed field experience in addition to the required practicum courses.
- SWK-S 682 Assessment in Mental Health and Addictions (3 cr.) Recognizing the social, political, legal, and ethical implications of assessment, students enrolled in this course 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.
- SWK-S 683 Community-Based Practice in Mental Health and Addiction (3 cr.) Students enrolled in this course examine a wide range of community-based services provided for people with severe mental illness and/or severe addiction problems. Special attention is given to strength-based, client-driven, and evidence-based practice models. Content includes community-based services in areas of case management, employment, housing, illness management, family, dual disorder treatment, and consumer self-help. Students also examine a variety of issues involved in the provision of 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 practice issues.
- SWK-S 685 Mental Health and Addictions Practice with Individuals and Families (3 cr.) Students enrolled in this course develop knowledge, values and ethics, skills, and judgment necessary for competent application of selected evidence-based, best practice approaches for service for children, youth, adults, and families affected by mental health and addictions issues. Students explore topics such as risk and resilience, recovery, and relapse prevention, and consider implications of current social and policy factors affecting service delivery to persons affected by mental health and addictions issues. Students learn to discover, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate evidence of practice effectiveness and apply that knowledge in communication, strengths discovery and assessment, hypothesis formation, contracting, intervention and prevention planning, service delivery, and evaluation. Students develop professional understanding and expertise in the application of at least one evidence-based approach for service to individuals and families affected by at least one specific mental health or addictions issues.
- SWK-S 686 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.
- SWK-S 687 Mental Health and Addiction Practice with Groups (3 cr.) Students enrolled in this course develop professional knowledge and skills for group work services to persons affected by mental health and addictions issues. The phases of group development and intervention during the various group work stages provide a conceptual framework for the course experience. Students learn to serve children, youth, adults, and families in groups that are therapeutic, growth producing, and life enhancing. Students examine a number of theoretical perspectives, including cognitive behavioral, communications, behavioral, and interpersonal approaches.
- SWK-S 690 Independent Study (1-6 cr.) 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. (In order to enroll in S690, approval from an academic advisor and the director of the M.S.W. Program is required.)
- SWK-S 692 Health Care Practice I (3 cr.) This course will focus on the role of the social worker in a health care setting. Issues such as team building, professional identity, patient advocacy, ethics, and managed care will be addressed. Also, the impact of health care payment sources and health care choices for patients will be explored.
- SWK-S 693 Health Care Practice II (3 cr.) This course will examine the psychosocial impact of illnesses. Areas such as coping with chronic illness, caregiver stress, grieving and loss, medical ethics, and violence as a health care issue will be examined. The needs of at-risk populations (i.e., children, survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, frail elderly, individuals living with HIV/AIDS, etc.) will be addressed.