Class Descriptions

SW722

Management and Organizational Leadership in Child and Family Systems

Grading Method:
Graded
Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
None
Pathway Elective For:
Children, Youth, and Families
Description:
This course will provide fundamental knowledge and skills for leadership and management of organizational work with children, youth, and families whether it be preventive, protective, rehabilitative, therapeutic, or advocacy based services. Students will learn practices to manage human service workers effectively within the competing tensions of child welfare and juvenile justice work such as increasing need and limited resources, high staff-turnover, policy changes, and emotionally taxing work. Students will gain skills in supervisory management for effective team building, organizational innovation, group decision making, and conflict mediation; concepts and skills for reflective supervision; practices to develop supervisory leadership; consider outcomes and measurements for program effectiveness; and principles of fiscal management and grant writing.
View Course

SW723

Prevention of Child Maltreatment

Grading Method:
Graded
Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
None
Pathway Elective For:
Global Social Work Practice, Children, Youth, and Families
Description:
In this course, we will examine correlates and consequences of child maltreatment, as well as the social, environmental, and cultural buffers and mitigating factors that lessen risk and promote protection/ resilience in maltreated children. We will also explore disparities in child maltreatment and child welfare system involvement. Throughout the course, you will learn about the public health model of child abuse prevention and examine programs that align with different tiers of a public health approach. In discussing these programs, you will be asked to consider how social work professionals can play a role in prevention, health promotion, and advocacy for children’s rights and protection from abuse.
View Course

SW724

Theories and Practices of Infant Mental Health

Grading Method:
Graded
Credits:
1 Credit Hour
Prerequisites:
None
Pathway Elective For:
Children, Youth, and Families
Description:
This is an introductory course on the relationship between theory and practice in infant mental health. It is intended for graduate students in Social Work, Education, Nursing and Psychology. Its purpose is to furnish a conceptual framework, based upon attachment theory, for understanding how the emotional qualities of the infant-parent dyads influence the infant's development, the parent's capacity to give care, and finally the professional's state of mind regarding the family. Emphasis is given to how the experiences of early childhood persist over time, and how they are summoned up again by the presence of a baby. This understanding becomes in turn the basis for learning how to plan a treatment approach that takes into account the family's capacities for change. This course meets several educational components for students interested in post-graduate endorsement in infant-family practice.
View Course

SW725

Juvenile and Adult Justice System

Grading Method:
Graded
Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
None
Pathway Elective For:
Children, Youth, and Families
Description:
This course critically examines juvenile delinquency and the adult correctional system in the United States. Students will be exposed to the theories that help professionals understand the development of delinquency and crime within the context of individuals, families and communities. Understanding the mechanisms that contribute to offending is important for social work professionals, as this understanding should directly guide the policies and practices of the justice system. This course will focus on some of the most pressing issues that face the justice system and the social work professionals that work within this system. Such issues include adolescent brain development, poverty, child maltreatment, substance abuse, mental health, disproportionate minority contact (DMC), incarceration, peer relationships, the school to prison pipeline, evidence based interventions and the role of ideology in juvenile justice policy. The course is designed for social work students interested in working in justice settings (micro or macro) or students interested in working with youth populations that may experience contact with the justice system.
View Course

SW726

Counseling and Advocacy for LGBTQIA2S+ Youth

Grading Method:
S/U
Credits:
1 Credit Hour
Prerequisites:
None
Pathway Elective For:
Children, Youth, and Families
Description:
This course will introduce and address issues of concern to social work practice youth that identify as Transgender, Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Queer or questioning, focusing on the basic knowledge, practice and advocacy skills it takes to become increasingly competent in providing social work practice and advocacy for people who are in these marginalize, yet highly resilient, groups. From a strength-based perspective, this course will focus on basic social work knowledge and understanding of youth that identify as TBLGQ including the social injustice and stigma facing these groups. Related to TBLGQ youth, key areas of focus include how to advocate, affirm, engage, assess and effectively practice in a culturally responsive manner, while exploring risk and protective factors within the contexts of school, home, health care, and communities. This course will also address self-exploration and ethical dilemmas for social work providers with TBLGQ youth.
View Course

SW727

Families and Health (Public Health)

Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
None
Pathway Elective For:
Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (Host), Children, Youth, and Families
Description:
This course examines families as a primary context for understanding health and health-related behaviors. Major topics include: 1) substantive and ethical overview of families and health, 2) historical perspectives on the family, 3) demographic trends in family structure, 4) family diversity with respect to social class, race/ethnicity and culture, and sexual orientation and their implications for understanding health phenomena and family models and theories, 5) families as the context for socialization to health beliefs and practices, 6) the provision of family-based care, 7) health profiles of family members and family roles, and 8) family-based skills, programs, and practice concepts.
View Course

SW729

Advanced Topics in Welfare of Children & Families

Grading Method:
N/A
Credits:
1 Credit Hour
Prerequisites:
None
Description:
This course presents advanced topics in Welfare of Children & Families. The topics may include emerging practice issues and advanced application of specific methods.
View Course

SW732

Suicide Assessment and Prevention

Grading Method:
S/U
Credits:
1 Credit Hour
Prerequisites:
None
Pathway Elective For:
Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (Host), Social Work Practice with Older Adults and Families from a Lifespan Perspective, Children, Youth, and Families
Description:
Suicide is a leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Suicide risk assessment, risk formulation, and treatment are consistently difficult in practice and greater attention to this public health issue and prevention efforts are needed, especially so, by social workers who provide the majority of mental health services in the U.S. This one-credit course is designed for MSW students who are focused on interpersonal practice and will cover the following topics: the critical issue of suicide (prevalence), suicide-risk assessment (risk and protective factors, warning signs, components of the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating Scale scale), formulating suicide risk (determining a level of suicide risk for subsequent alignment with appropriate action), and prevention approaches including evidence-informed interventions (including multi-level prevention at the universal, institutional, and individual levels). Students will have the opportunity to apply knowledge and practice skills with use of case vignettes, roleplays, and simulations.
View Course

SW737

Basic Skills for Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Grading Method:
S/U
Credits:
1 Credit Hour
Prerequisites:
None
Pathway Elective For:
Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (Host)
Description:
DBT is an empirically supported treatment for individuals with severe emotional regulation problems. Part of the treatment consists of teaching individuals specific skill sets in mindfulness, interpersonal effectiveness, emotional regulation and crisis management. This advanced action-based learning course will focus on direct practice and implementation of dialectical behavior therapy for borderline personality disorder and other psychiatric and psychological problems. This course will cover dialectical behavioral therapy approaches to address suicidal thoughts and actions, self-harm, emotion dysregulation, behavioral dysregulation, cognitive dysregulation, and self-dysregulation. Emphasis will be given to practical application of therapy techniques and troubleshooting difficult and challenging clinical circumstances. An overview of cultural considerations for dialectical behavioral therapy will also be provided. Students will learn an overview of these skills and strategies to integrate these skills into their clinical practice in a variety of individual and group therapy settings.
View Course

SW738

Rural Social Work

Grading Method:
S/U
Credits:
1 Credit Hour
Prerequisites:
None
Pathway Elective For:
Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (Host)
Description:
This course will examine practice theory and techniques relevant to social work in a rural setting. There are many definitions of what might be considered a rural community. For the purposes of this course, we will define communities as rural that have a population size of 2,500 to 20,000 with no major metropolitan area within an hour of the community. Rural communities are often plagued with similar problems as vast metropolitan areas such as high poverty rates, inadequate housing, and inadequate access to health care. However, the scarcity of resources and professionals including medical providers, socio-economic underdevelopment, and physical distance from services and lack of public transportation are frequently identified as compounding factors of living in a rural community. The impact of differences in the key diversity dimensions such as ability, age, class, color, culture, ethnicity, family structure, gender (including gender identity and gender expression) marital status, national origin, race, religion or spirituality, sex, and sexual orientation will be examined, within the context of practicing in a rural community. This course will also emphasize issues of ethical practice as defined by the social work code of ethics within a rural community.
View Course