| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | Youth living in impoverished communities experience high incidents of involvement with the juvenile justice system, high rates of school dropout, high levels of suicidal behavior, economic hardships that result in frequent moves and often unstable family support networks and lower levels of successful engagement and retention in behavioral health services (Carson, Cook & Alegria, 2010; Hogue & Dauber, 2011; Huey & Polo, 2008). In their daily lives they face violence, homelessness, incarceration, foster care, disabilities, immigration and sexual orientation and racial intolerance. Engagement and retention in treatment are major problems for mental health prevention and intervention programs. This course will present evidence based interventions designed to enhance the knowledge and skills of engagement and retention in treatment when working with high need youth, young adults and their families. We will review commonly utilized theoretical models that inform engagement and retention strategies: the Health Belief Model; Behavior Modification; Strategic and Structural Family Systems Theory; the Ecological Model and the Therapeutic Alliance. We will present promising approaches to engagement and retention which include the Strategic Structural-Systems Engagement (SSSE) model (Szapocznik’s et al.,1988) in which engagement resistance is part of the process; adjunctive family support interventions (Miller & Prinz, 2003); interventions that utilize Motivational Interviewing to address engagement (Nock & Kazdin, 2005; Grote et al. 2009); and McKay and colleagues (1996) provider engagement training to enhance the therapeutic alliance early on in treatment. Special attention will also be given to issues of diversity as it relates to building therapeutic relationships and intervening with youth and their families. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (Host) |
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| Credits: | 2 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This interprofessional course is for student learners in the areas of advanced practice providers (medicine and advanced-practice nursing), dentistry, pharmacy, and social work. The course allows health professional students to gain an understanding of how each discipline contributes to the healthcare team, the importance of effective communication, and the role of team collaboration to clinical decision making. Active participation in interprofessional groups which focus on clinical case discussions and team-based decision making is a focus.The course promotes health professional students gaining an understanding of how each discipline contributes to the healthcare team and the importance of effective communication and team collaboration to clinical decision making. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (Host) |
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| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This advanced action-based learning course will focus on direct practice and implementation of the cognitive-behavioral treatment for depression. Several case examples will be utilized and students will engage in role-play and detailed class discussion focused on these techniques. Emphasis will be given to practical application of therapy techniques and troubleshooting difficult and challenging clinical cases. The course will also include strategies for enhancing adherence to behavioral homework exercises. An overview of empirically established cultural adaptations of CBT for depression will also be provided. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (Host) |
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| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | Motivational interviewing is a goal-directed, client-centered counseling approach for eliciting behavioral change by helping clients explore and resolve ambivalence. Utilizing the Professional Training Videotape Series developed by William R. Miller and Stephen Rollnick, this is a series of skill-sharing sessions will provide a basic introduction to Motivational Interviewing. This advanced action-based learning course will focus on direct practice and implementation of motivational interviewing techniques. Utilizing numerous materials including video examples from this five-week series of 3-hour instruction and skill-building sessions will introduce motivational Interviewing. Using the video material and supplemental handouts, along with lecture, role-playing practice and group discussion, this course will lay a foundation for participants to begin to develop their clinical skills in helping people accomplish change in areas of difficult behavior. Emphasis will be given to practical application of therapy techniques and troubleshooting difficult and challenging clinical circumstances across a variety of practice settings and populations. An overview of cultural considerations in motivational interviewing will also be provided. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (Host) |
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| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | SW 617 recommended, not required |
| Course Description: | This course is designed to deepen knowledge and skills in grief counseling to work effectively with a diverse range of bereaved individuals. Theoretical underpinnings of grief and loss counseling and contexts in which counseling may occur will be explored. Developing specific grief assessment and intervention clinical skills applicable to a range of diverse clients across the lifespan with different types of loss will be the focus of the course. |
| 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 |
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| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This laboratory course is designed and reserved for students who completed the School of Social Work MasterTrack Certificate and are enrolled in the MasterTrack MSW option. The course will focus on tying together concepts learned in the MasterTrack Certificate, and developing knowledge, skills, tools and techniques that are critical for successful social work practice. This course provides opportunities for hands-on experience and training, using tangible tools that are critical for success in interpersonal, mezzo, and macro practice. Special emphasis will be placed on approaches that are evidence based, and strengthen socially just and culturally responsive practice. |
| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This course presents advanced topics in Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse. The topics may include emerging practice issues and advanced application of specific methods. |
| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This course will prepare students at the advanced level of social work practice to identify and resolve ethical dilemmas with children and families. Ethics is addressed in all areas of social work education and practice; therefore, this course will provide the theory and framework for making ethical decisions across all levels of practice. Ethical issues include, but are not limited to protection of life, autonomy and freedom, least harm, full disclosure, racial bias and predictive analytics (e.g., disproportionality and disparities), child removal, the termination of parental rights, and privacy. This course begins with an overview of the mission and values of social work practice, utilizing the NASW Code of Ethics as the primary framework for ethical-decision making. Students will learn the difference between a value conflict and an ethical dilemma, how to apply theory, and models for mediating ethical dilemmas in your work with individuals, families, and groups. Theories (e.g. deontological, utilitarian, and moral) will be the basis for ethical decision-making in this course and justification models will be introduced through the use of concrete issues and case examples. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Welfare of Children & Families (Host) |
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| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This course will provide an opportunity to understand the unique developmental needs of infants and young children (0 to 5) and their caregivers. It will examine theories and techniques for observing and understanding infants and young children and their caregivers' behavior and interactions. This course will emphasize evidence-based tools for observation of interactions that address diverse groups of infants and young children in their primary environments (e.g., family and alternative caregiving contexts). Special attention will be given to diversity issues related to understanding the nature of interactions and developing anti-racist practice skills. The course will be divided into classroom and community-based learning opportunities. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse, Welfare of Children & Families (Host) |
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| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course 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. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Welfare of Children & Families (Host) |
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| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This course will examine the 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 and adolescents. Students will learn about the public health model of child abuse prevention and examine a range of strategies that extend from this model. Throughout the course, students will critically review programs and practices in primary and secondary prevention and consider how they align with core values of the social work profession. Students will also consider how social workers can become more integrally involved in advancing local, national, and international efforts to promote the well-being of maltreated children across the lifecourse. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Global Social Work Practice, Welfare of Children & Families (Host) |
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| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course 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. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Welfare of Children & Families (Host) |
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| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course 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. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Welfare of Children & Families (Host) |
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| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course 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. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Welfare of Children & Families (Host) |
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| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course 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. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (Host), Welfare of Children & Families |
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| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This course presents advanced topics in Welfare of Children & Families. The topics may include emerging practice issues and advanced application of specific methods. |
| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course 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. Learning Objectives: 1. Differentiate between suicide risk factors, protective factors, and warning signs. 2. Facilitate suicide risk assessment using evidence-informed screening and assessment tools. 3. Formulate a case conceptualization to determine suicide risk level. 3. Develop an intervention plan based upon suicide assessment and case conceptualization. 4. Explain and implement evidence-informed suicide prevention strategies. |
| 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, Welfare of Children & Families |
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| Credits: | 1 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | DBT is an empirically supported treatment for individuals with severe emotionally 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. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (Host) |
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| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course 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 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. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (Host) |
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| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | The term “post-truth,” the Oxford Dictionaries 2016 Word of the Year, reflects an era where everyone is a few clicks away from information that supports any goal, belief, or outcome desired whether or not that information is factual. Evaluating information and recognizing “fake news” is a critical skill for everyone. For social workers, advocates, policy makers, and others responsible for human well-being, it’s essential to find reliable data and other evidence to promote best practice and avoid the dangers of inaccurate information. Skill in locating and evaluating information can also help a practitioner work with clients and others who bring incorrect information into an interaction. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Community Change, Management & Leadership, Policy & Political Social Work (Host), Program Evaluation and Applied Research |
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| Credits: | 3 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | Through a team-based, experiential, and interdisciplinary learning model, small groups of U-M graduate and professional students work with faculty to explore and offer solutions to emerging, complex problems. This course is offered through the Law School’s Problem Solving Initiative and the topics vary by semester. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse, Policy & Political Social Work (Host), Program Evaluation and Applied Research |
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| Credits: | 1 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | In this course, students will participate in a simulation in which they will take on the role of policymakers, policy advocates, and community stakeholders. Students will be assigned a role, will research their character, and will engage with the other participants as that character throughout the duration of the simulation. Students will engage with each other in person as well as utilize an online platform to develop coalitions and attempt to sway those with differing positions to their side. Simulation topics vary by semester. The class may be taken multiple times for credit as long as a different topic is selected. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Policy & Political Social Work (Host), Social Work Practice with Older Adults and Families from a Lifespan Perspective |
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| Credits: | 1 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This one credit course will focus on the use of an experiential and adventure practice approach (theories, models, tools and techniques) for therapeutic purposes with individuals, groups and families. Students are expected to come with a foundational understanding of clinical work (in particular, some knowledge of clinical group facilitation), and experiential learning. Theoretical models of clinical experiential and adventure practice will be offered and discussed in tandem with clinical social work theories and models of practice. Evidence-based literature will be reviewed that promote nature-based, experiential and adventure interventions that build on strengths and resources of individuals and their families, and that integrate components of other evidence-based practices into the experiential and adventure methodologies. Inclusive and accessible practices will be discussed and demonstrated, especially due to the outdoor and natural setting involved and the physicality of many of the tools used in the approach. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse (Host), Welfare of Children & Families |
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| Credits: | 1 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | Understanding the implications of childhood relationships on adult functioning can provide a powerful framework for creating goals and intervention in adult psychotherapy. Using attachment theory as the foundation, this course will address relationship-based intervention with adults. Students will learn the role of attachment in the development and maintenance of strategies that adults use to manage needs for autonomy and connection, in social, family and romantic relationships. |
| 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, Welfare of Children & Families |
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| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This course presents advanced topics in Policy & Political Social Work. The topics may include emerging practice issues and advanced application of specific methods. |
University of Michigan
School of Social Work
1080 South University Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106