| Credits: | 1 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This course introduces students to the world of dementia care for older adults and family caregivers. Demographic data regarding increased incidence of dementia in all ethnic/racial and socioeconomic groups will frame examination of intervention research with individuals with dementia and family caregivers. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse, Social Work Practice with Older Adults and Families from a Lifespan Perspective (Host) |
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| Credits: | 2 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | The professional seminar in Jewish communal leadership provides a critical space within the Jewish Communal Leadership Program curriculum in which students can integrate the very different approaches to knowledge, skills and experience – acquired in their SSW and Judaic studies courses and in their board and field placements – into a coherent whole. It provides opportunities for participants to meet with relevant professional and lay community leaders, to explore the relationship of personal and professional identities, to work collaboratively on soliciting and addressing communal problems gathered from the field, to participate in generating public programming related to Jewish communal issues, to consult with SSW faculty about the application of Social Work approaches to Jewish communal problems, and to gather peer feedback and establish relationships with each other. The seminar also serves as a setting for the exploration of general societal concerns from the perspective of Jewish communal interests and traditional values, and for bringing the perspectives and skills that are a part of Social Work study and practice to addressing Jewish communal concerns. The seminar serves as the intellectual home for the Jewish Communal Leadership Program, providing the forum in which students will grapple with understanding the Jewish community within its broader societal context. It provides a space for students to engage with issues of pluralism – addressing the place of Jewish community in a diverse society and the challenges of diversity within the Jewish community. The seminar will also provide a setting for students to apply their Judaic training and their practical skills in evaluation, data analysis, and social relationships to developing analytical approaches to current problems that will be presented by communal agencies for the consideration of JCLP students. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Management & Leadership (Host) |
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| Credits: | 1 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This course will address how depression & anxiety in late life compromise the quality of life in older adults. The students will be assisted to deepen their understanding of the thought process of those with depression and anxiety. They will learn how MBCT could help improve the disorder and see MBCT as a viable non-pharmacology intervention. The scientific evidence in the effectiveness of mindfulness interventions for mental health issues, and specifically MBCT for prevention of relapse of depression and anxiety will be discussed. The step-by step components of 8 sessions of MBCT wil be discussed and students will have opportunities to practice the skills. They will learn the differences in approaches between MBCT and CBT. Adaptation made to accommodate working with older population will be discussed in detail. The results of pre-post outcome data and qualitative evaluation of the MBCT groups the instructor led with local older adults will be shared. The roles that a MBCT therapist plays and the training needed will be discussed. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse, Social Work Practice with Older Adults and Families from a Lifespan Perspective (Host) |
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| Credits: | 2 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | The professional seminar in Jewish communal leadership serves as the academic home for the Jewish Communal Leadership Program (JCLP). It provides a critical space in the JCLP curriculum for students to integrate different approaches to knowledge, skills and experience -- acquired in their SSW and Judaic studies courses and in their board and field placements -- into a unified and meaningful experience. Within the seminar, Jewish Communal Leadership students are given opportunities to meet with local, national, and international professional and lay community leaders, to explore the relationship of personal and professional identities, to engage with historic and current approaches to Jewish community challenges, to work collaboratively on soliciting and addressing communal problems gathered from the field, to participate in generating public programming related to Jewish communal issues, to consult with SSW faculty about the application of Social Work approaches to Jewish communal problems, and to gather peer feedback and establish relationships with each other. The seminar also serves as a setting for considering general societal concerns from the perspective of Jewish communal interests and values, and for bringing the perspectives and skills that are a part of Social Work study and practice to Jewish communal concerns. Social Work 795 is intended for second- year Jewish Communal Leadership Program students. It provides them with a space to interact with first-year JCLP students and to focus on group projects in response to the needs of relevant Jewish agencies. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Management & Leadership (Host) |
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| Credits: | 1 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | The course will canvass the historic treatment of race by the US labor movement, the institutional factors that impeded or facilitated collaboration between the civil rights and labor movements, and contemporary areas of tension within the labor movement. The class will discuss law, organization structure, economics, and the role of critical figures that bridged labor and civil rights movements. |
| Credits: | 1 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This course will focus on anti-oppressive organizing and transformative justice approaches to creating community change. It will explore the theory and concepts behind such approaches as well as the specific skills needed to engage in anti-oppressive, anti-racist and transformative organizing work with a focus on power and root causes analysis.The course will draw from contemporary grassroots and social movement models of practice including emergent strategy, healing and restorative justice, digital and arts-based justice efforts, and other related examples. Students will understand the frameworks, practices, skills, and concepts involved in anti-oppressive and transformative justice approaches. Particular emphasis will be placed on competencies related to critical storytelling and popular education, collective modes of organizing, and visionary approaches toward community change. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Community Change (Host) |
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| Credits: | 3 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This course presents advanced topics in Social Work Practice with Older Adults and Families from a Lifespan Perspective. The topics may include emerging practice issues and advanced application of specific methods. |
| Credits: | 2 |
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| Prerequisites: | Doctoral student in Social Work & Social Science or Permission of Instructor |
| Course Description: | This is a seminar about the nature of research and scholarship for the students in the joint program in Social Work and Social Science. The basic motivating question for the seminar is a daunting one. It concerns the nature, place and practice of scholarship in a complex multidisciplinary context that emphasizes learning about not only the requirements of developing basic knowledge as an end in itself but also the skills, processes, procedures and routines associated with the use of that knowledge to help solve problems that impinge on, or directly disrupt the quality of peoples lives. A central assumption is that similar to other forms of scholarship, expertise in scholarship in a combined professional/academic context is not automatic. Instead it involves the purposive acquisition of habits, skills and attitudes that enable people to contribute to professional and academic advances in their chosen field of inquiry. The first semester focuses on the early stages of this development. As such, it seeks to establish an orientation to the development of scholarship that will continue once the seminar is over. That is to say, it seeks to engage students in an examination of the practices, styles and domains of scholarship in the multidisciplinary contexts of social work, social welfare and social science so that they may begin to evolve an approach to scholarship suited to their own interests, inclinations and capabilities. Throughout the term, various topics pertinent to making explicit the requirements and practices of scholarship will be discussed based on focused readings on each topic. The second semester, taken at the end of coursework, is focused on identifying how the integration of social work and social science knowledge can be the basis of the social work prelim or dissertation project. |
| Credits: | 1 - 8 |
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| Prerequisites: | Doctoral Standing or Permission of Instructor |
| Course Description: | Students enroll in this course, under their advisor’s section number, when working on their research internship in the School of Social Work. |
| Credits: | 1 - 8 |
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| Prerequisites: | Doctoral Standing or Permission of Instructor |
| Course Description: | Students enroll in this course, under their advisor’s section number, when working on their research internship in the School of Social Work. |
| Credits: | 1 - 8 |
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| Prerequisites: | Doctoral Standing or Permission of Instructor |
| Course Description: | Students enroll in this course, under their advisor’s section number, when working on their research internship in the School of Social Work. |
| Credits: | 3 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This doctoral-level course offers a comprehensive introduction to the essential elements of social work and social science research. It serves as an “introduction” by delving into core aspects of the research process, including research paradigms, ethics, problem and hypothesis formulation, literature review, research designs, data collection, data analysis, and proposal development. Various research designs associated with both qualitative and quantitative methods are introduced to spark student interest for further exploration in intermediate or advanced courses offered at the doctoral level. Additionally, the course contains “intermediate” to “advanced” content by stimulating in-depth discussions of the counterfactual model and introducing advanced quasi-experimental methods such as difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity, instrumental variables, and propensity score matching. By the end of this course, students will possess a robust foundation in social science research principles. They will be equipped with critical thinking and analytical skills necessary for evaluating research rigor (be an “informed consumer”) and conceptualizing, planning, and executing a rigorous research project (be a more “careful researchers”), culminating in the development of a comprehensive research proposal. Special note from the instructor: While this course introduces advanced techniques, it primarily aims to foster a deeper understanding of the counterfactual model and to provide a fundamental knowledge of these methods. Students are not expected to conduct any actual analyses in this course or to possess advanced statistical training prior to enrollment. The primary focus of this course is research design, rather than statistical analysis. However, knowledge of ordinary least squares (OLS) regression is strongly preferred to fully understand course materials. |
| Credits: | 3 |
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| Prerequisites: | Doctoral standing or permission of instructor. |
| Course Description: | This course provides a critical examination of strategies of change within human service organizations and in networks of organizations in terms of their effects on effectiveness, efficiency, and responsiveness to the needs of vulnerable populations. Theories and research on organizations—specifically organization‐environment relations, organization‐client relations, structure, organizational change and innovation, and inter‐organizational analysis and change—will be applied to the formulation of intervention and change strategies. The effects of current structuring of service delivery systems on accessibility, comprehensiveness, continuity, fairness, quality, and effectiveness of care, with special emphasis on populations vulnerable through their gender or ethnicity, will be detailed. Models and empirical studies of change within organizations and in networks of organizations aimed at improving the delivery of services will be analyzed and research issues and knowledge gaps will be identified. Relevant ethical and value issues will be examined. |
| Credits: | 3 |
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| Prerequisites: | Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor |
| Course Description: | Community interventions are examined as methodologies of planned social change and community practice. The changing context of practice, major models, methods, and the uses of empirically based research to formulate and critically evaluate general practice propositions and action guidelines will be analyzed. Models of planned change to be discussed may include mass mobilization, social action, citizen participation, political advocacy, community education, and neighborhood development. Analysis will include methods of assessing community conditions, formulating strategies, building organizations, activating people, implementing plans, and monitoring and evaluating results. Research and case studies in public and private settings, in health, housing, and other human services, and in a variety of territories from neighborhood to nation will be included. Problems and issues of the economically disadvantaged, minorities, and women, and relevant ethical issues and values will be addressed. |
| Credits: | 3 |
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| Prerequisites: | Doctoral standing and permission of the instructor. PIP area |
| Course Description: | Policy as an intervention process is critically examined by analyzing the phases of this process, various perspectives on policy analysis, the uses of empirical social science knowledge, the context of policy, policy’s latent functions, and social, organizational, and cultural factors that impact at each phase. Three types of substantive structures will be included: remediation, enhancement, and prevention. General and specific approaches to these goals will be compared in different content areas and auspices (public and private). Key research questions and gaps in knowledge will be identified as will roles, tasks, and tools of the researcher and policy developer. Ethical and value questions will be explored, with special attention to the effects of race, class, ethnicity, gender, and various types of social discrimination. |
| Credits: | 3 |
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| Prerequisites: | Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor |
| Course Description: | Intervention methods are critically examined as they relate to racial, gender, and ethnic statuses of clients. Social science theory and research relevant to the identification of problems experienced by target groups and to status, effects on psychosocial interventions will be reviewed. Attention will be on the effects of status and power differentials linked to racial, ethnic and gender status's of clients on the development and implementation of interventions at various levels in the social system. Cultural assumptions and discrimination that influence the definition and nature of problems, health, and competence, and the nature of interventions will be analyzed. Although attention will be given primarily to ethnicity and gender, these issues will be explored in a way that extends their applicability to other status differences and to sexual orientation. Key literature from social work, epidemiology and the social sciences will be covered to prepare students to design, implement, and evaluate interventions which address the problems of high risk or under-served groups. Throughout, ethical and value issues will be integrated into course content. |
| Prerequisites: | Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor |
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| Course Description: | Content varies, in keeping with faculty and student interests in emerging issues relating to practice, intervention or policy, and covers theoretical and empirical underpinnings, key research questions and gaps in knowledge, ethical and value issues, and ethnic, gender, minority, and social‐class factors. For example, the seminar may focus on a critical analysis of a developing intervention or of a new social welfare policy initiative. |
| Credits: | 3 |
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| Prerequisites: | Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor |
| Course Description: | Content of these seminars vary, in keeping with faculty and student interests in emerging issues relating to evidence based practice with individuals, families, and groups on the macro or micro level of intervention. These seminars can cover theoretical and empirical underpinnings, key research questions and gaps in knowledge, ethical and value issues, and ethnic, gender, minority, and social-class factors. |
| Credits: | 3 |
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| Prerequisites: | Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor |
| Course Description: | This course focuses on exploring and applying a structure for the comparative cross-national study of social services. It is intended to provide a common basis for developing comparisons and providing students with the opportunity to explore how a particular area of social services has developed and been implemented in a country of their choosing. The course will start with an exploration of the parameters for understanding and comparing national approaches to social services. These parameters include, but are not limited to, the resources/wealth of a country, the role of national/local government, cross-national influences, and the relevant religious and societal values in a country. In developing comparative perspectives on the realities of social service provision, emphasis will be placed on understanding challenges of implementation and gaps between policies and practice. Examples of social service areas that students will be encouraged to pursue include income security, protecting vulnerable populations, criminal justice, child care/adoption, health care, disability policy, and employment/labor rights. |
| Credits: | 3 |
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| Prerequisites: | Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor |
| Course Description: | This course centers on the examination of the purposes of social welfare and social work and how they have reflected different philosophical and ideological positions, diverse class, racial, ethnic, and cultural perspectives, and the particular historical contexts in which they emerged. It covers long standing conflicts and tensions in the field such as the role of social responsibility vs. social control, how needs are recognized and determined, the nature of helping, perspectives on social justice and charity, the professional role of social workers, and organizational arrangements for social work and social welfare. The focus of this course is on the development of U.S. social welfare and social work with a comparative, cross-national and multicultural lens. |
| Credits: | 3 |
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| Prerequisites: | Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor |
| Course Description: | These seminars cover variable topics related to faculty and student analysis of critical and emerging issues. Related to specific social problems and to social services systems established to address these problems. Possible topics include: care-giving in post industrial society; privatization of social service system; social control and the social services; special problems and/or populations; deinstitutionalization and the development of community-based care; women, work, and welfare; and comparative analysis of social service systems. |
| Credits: | 3 |
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| Prerequisites: | Doctoral Standing, one grad level stats course, and a basic understanding of bivariate analysis, including correlation, or permission of instructor. Also recommended is a rudimentary understanding of instrument construction and data collection procedures. |
| Course Description: | This course focuses on the theoretical and strategic issues in designing and implementing formative or summative evaluations. The scope will include methods of evaluation appropriate for the study of social programs, human service organizations, inter-organizational relationships; and similarities and differences from methods used for basic knowledge development. The analysis of alternative evaluation models, procedures, and techniques and issues in the design, implementation, and utilization of evaluation research will also be addressed. Topics may include: the sociopolitical context; ethical issues; the planning of evaluations; specification of variables, with emphasis on definitions of effectiveness and on operations of service technologies; the formulation of evaluation objectives; issues in sampling procedures, measurement, and data collection; alternative models for designing programmatic and organizational evaluations, including network analysis; analysis of findings; feedback at different stages of program evaluation; and reporting, dissemination, and utilization of results. |
| Credits: | 3 |
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| Prerequisites: | Doctoral Standing and one grad level stats course or permission of instructor |
| Course Description: | This course covers research methods for assessing the nature and extent of needs for social intervention, evaluating the success or failure of existing social welfare policies, and determining the anticipated consequences of alternative policies and interventions. Also considered will be values and assumptions underlying policies and research, similarities and differences between methods for developing social policy knowledge and those for basic knowledge development, strategies to promote utilization and dissemination of research results, and methods of studying community, regional, national, and comparative international policies. Possible topics will be: community needs assessment techniques; subjective and objective measures of program and policy consequences; aggregation problems within and across communities, regions, or countries; analysis of time series data; archival and other historical methods of research; case study techniques; analysis of cross‐sectional, panel, and comparative international data as natural experiments; the design and analysis of formal social experiments; meta‐analysis of existing research results; and benefit‐cost analysis and other related methods. |
| Credits: | 3 |
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| Prerequisites: | Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor |
| Course Description: | Grant writing is the primary mechanism to obtain extramural funding for scientists who plan to pursue a career as an independently-funded principal investigator. Whether that extramural funding is through the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, or a private foundation; the ability to clearly and concisely articulate your program of research and funding needs is a critical skill to succeed as an academic researcher. However, few PhD programs provide formal instruction on the use of successful grant writing techniques. This course focuses on helping you develop advanced writing skills and knowledge of the grant-writing process, particularly as it pertains to NIH-style grant mechanisms. The course is conceptualized as covering the following topics: 1. Successful writing styles, including: a) writing readable sentences; and b) creating coherent paragraphs 2. Successful strategies for writing a specific aims page 3. Successful strategies for writing significance, innovation, and approach sections 4. Successful strategies for writing preliminary data 5. Successful strategies for writing a training plan 6. Reviewing the NIH review criteria and grant scoring rubric 7. Reviewing the preparation of all supporting documents (e.g., NIH biosketch; Human subjects, etc). 8. Learning to provide constructive peer review of grant applications The grading for this course will be centered around developing: a) specific aims page; b) significance and innovation sections; c) approach; d) preliminary data; and e) a training plan for a full draft of a Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowship. Students will be encouraged to submit their award to NIH for peer review. https://researchtraining.nih.gov/programs/fellowships/F31 Students will spend much of their class assigned reading by reviewing funded F31 applications as well as unfunded F31 applications so the students can learn to critically review an application to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Class time will be spent reviewing the structures of funded grants, unfunded grants, as well as providing constructive feedback to students through peer review. |
| Credits: | 3 |
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| Prerequisites: | Doctoral Standing or permission of instructor |
| Course Description: | Randomized controlled trials are the gold standard study design to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of interventions deployed in educational, clinical, and service-based settings. This course will use lecture, small groups, and case examples to help you develop the advanced skills and applied knowledge to design and lead randomized controlled trials to evaluate the efficacy and effectiveness of behavioral interventions. The course will cover the following topics: 1. Describe the principles (e.g., equipoise) underlying the conduct of an unbiased randomized controlled trial (RCT), which is commonly referenced as a ‘clinical trial.’ 2. Identifying specific challenges/pitfalls with and solutions to conducting RCTs to evaluate behavioral interventions 3. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of a range of research designs in addition to RCT (e.g., quasi-experimental) 4. Understanding methods for monitoring, coordinating, conducting, processing data, and evaluating behavioral RCTs 5. Understanding decisions regarding selection of primary and secondary outcome measures. 6. Understanding the importance of and strategies for randomization and conducting unbiased analysis 7. Understanding the importance of mixed-methods and qualitative evaluations within the context of RCTs. 8. Understanding the role of implementation science when designing and leading RCTs 9. Designing a specific study to test a behavioral intervention within an educational, clinical, or service-based setting |
University of Michigan
School of Social Work
1080 South University Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106