Past Courses

This course challenges learners to explore their personal values, beliefs and judgements related to issues of sexuality. Interpersonal practice tools will be offered to assist clients in holding personal beliefs and values and remaining present to client's sexual self, needs, beliefs. Lecture and discussion will examine how implicit bias can limit services and harm clients, particular limits to sexually diverse populations. Sexual health will be considered as a social justice issue.

This course has been developed to meet the Michigan implicit bias training requirements for health professionals.

Suicide is a leading cause of preventable death in the United States and worldwide. Nearly 50% of individuals who end life by suicide see a primary care provider within a month of death, yet suicide risk assessment and treatment is consistently difficult in practice. With the majority of mental health services in the US being delivered by social workers, it is imperative that risk assessment and safety planning knowledge and skills are in place for our work with clients with the ultimate goal being to prevent premature suicidal death.

This webinar will discuss and present on suicide as public health issue in the US, risk and protective factors, warning signs, barriers to help-seeking, risk assessment process and risk formulation, safety planning, and cultural humility in risk assessment with use of a clinical case. This workshop is also focused on the adult population.

This course will examine the impact of previous historical events on the contemporary life of African Americans. The course will cover these historical events: slavery and the triangular trade, Jim Crow, lynchings, the great migration, Marcus Garvey and the New Negro movement, redlining and housing discrimination and the civil rights movement. The course will also investigate how these historical events negatively impact current African American life including: racial differences in wealth accumulation, the impact of racism on physical and mental health, racial socialization of children (“the talk”), discrimination and micro-aggressions, and the impact of mass incarceration on family life.

This session will challenge practitioners to reflect on their current practices and identify opportunities to incorporate anti-racist practices. Participants will learn important definitions and strategies to identify one's own biases and how bias impacts those whom we serve. Social work standards concerning diversity will be examined, along with one's professional obligations and responsibilities.

Working towards social justice requires the intentional development of a diverse, equitable, and inclusive culture by intervening at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels. The Certificate in Dismantling Oppression is designed for individuals in all areas of practice. Individuals and organizations that have a commitment to challenging social injustices will apply core concepts and strategies to disrupt oppression at interpersonal and institutional levels. Participants will learn how oppression interferes with achieving social justice within the United States, increase knowledge of anti-oppressive practices, and obtain tools to dismantle oppression using common agreements.

Power and Oppression - Foundation: This module supports participants in engaging with a structural framework of oppression, as well as the NASW Code of Ethics obligation to challenge social injustices. After a self-assessment of personal biases, common agreements will be introduced to be utilized while discussing dynamics of power and oppression.

Power and Oppression - Tools of Oppression: This module introduces four common tools, discrimination, prejudice, stereotypes, and generalizations, used to support the perpetuation of systemic oppression.

Tools of Oppression - Knowledge: This module will expand terms and definitions to increase knowledge and understanding of the "tools of oppression" as they relate to implicit and explicit bias and the impact on historically marginalized individuals and groups.

Anti-Oppression as a Strategy: This module provides information on policies, procedures, and practices that are recommended to mitigate the harmful impacts of oppression at the individual and institutional level.

Commitment to Action: This module is designed to support participants in creating a plan of action to actively engage in dismantling racism within their sphere of influence.

Practice Implications: This module identifies potential challenges and barriers to implementing anti-oppressive actions. Methods of implementation and advocacy of increasing access to resources in practice will be reviewed.

The webinar covers what constitutes informal social control of child maltreatment (ISC_CM) and what we know about it cross-culturally. Based on research in Korea, China, Russia, Spain, Nepal, Vietnam, Ghana, and Tunisia the course introduces the conditions under which ISC_CM is associated with better outcomes for children and the conditions under which it is not. A particular focus is given to conditions in which ISC_CM is normative in Ghana and how that fact changes the potential for child protection. The course suggests an alternative to the current model, in which protection cases are triaged differently, with "minor" cases of maltreatment reverted to designated accountable community leaders who coordinate and supervise protection of the child with the tools of informal social control and informal social support. The alternate approach would require extensive community education and relationship building with communities and between communities and the child protection system.

The objective of this training is to help mental health professionals develop confidence and a skill set for discussing sexual identity, health/wellness, and intimacy with their clients. Fundamentals of sex therapy from a biopsychosocial approach will be covered to ensure that participants feel well-equipped to incorporate sexual functioning into their core approach to assessment and treatment. The learner will understand the ramifications of relegating this topic to a "specialized" treatment approach and feel skilled and capable in addressing sex therapy topics as a foundational approach to assessment and treatment.

Relationship violence is still a common problem for young people today and while professionals may be familiar with common forms of power and control including verbal, emotional, and physical abuse, many adults are less familiar with the ways technology and social media can be used as tools of power and control in dating situations. This training will start by exploring the most common ways that technology and social media can be used in abusive situations and end with practical strategies that supportive adults can use to identify warning signs of digital dating abuse and have critical conversations with both survivors and perpetrators.