Children, Youth & Families

This advanced practice course builds on content from the previous foundational course(s) and focuses on family functioning within diverse client populations. The focus of this course is on the development and utilization of family-focused skills and interventions with diverse families in the context of a variety of practice settings such as healthcare, mental health, and other community-based settings.

To inform practice interventions, this course will be grounded in the integration of various current family theories (i.e. attachment theory, general systems theory, communication theory

This course will provide foundational knowledge about trauma-informed practice. A primary goal is preparing students for interprofessional approaches to trauma-informed prevention and intervention. A key focus will be on teachers, social workers, and nurses collaborating to use specific trauma-informed practices for addressing young people's academic, social-emotional, behavioral, and health needs.

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

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

This course will examine the development of life course in stages, from conception to early childhood (0-6), middle childhood (7-12), adolescence (13-18), and emerging adulthood (18+). Students will explore how development unfolds, with a particular emphasis on how adversity shapes the experiences of children from a young age. Key theories used to understand human development and behavior include those focused on attachment, trauma, and resilience. Special attention will be given to the relationships between critical life conditions, (i.e., race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic class

This course will examine the development of life course in stages, from conception to early childhood (0-6), middle childhood (7-12), adolescence (13-18), and emerging adulthood (18+). Students will explore how development unfolds, with a particular emphasis on how adversity shapes the experiences of children from a young age. Key theories used to understand human development and behavior include those focused on attachment, trauma, and resilience. Special attention will be given to the relationships between critical life conditions, (i.e., race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic class

This course is intended to develop knowledge and skills for practice with children, youth and families, with special attention to assessment. Students learn about varying approaches to assessment, the various contexts in which assessment takes place, and the assessment skills used with children, youth, and families. Students will be familiar with both strengths and limitations of assessments, and how assessments are used (e.g., in school, juvenile justice, and child welfare forensic assessment) including assessments for intervention recommendations. Students will learn different models of

This course is currently taught as SW 540, which is a workshop-based inter-professional education course offered by UM School of Social Work in partnership with the School of Nursing and School of Education. It is the first course in a 3-course sequence in Trauma-Informed Practice (TIP). SW 541 and SW 542 are also included as electives in the WCF pathway. Completion of all 3 courses fulfills the requirement of a trauma certificate. This first course will provide basic, foundational knowledge about the cognitive, social-emotional, behavioral, and health-related outcomes of trauma in children

This course will survey the distribution, determinants, and biomedical, psychological and behavioral aspects of health inclusive of physical, mental and behavioral health and disease across the life span from pre-birth to death. Social, economic, environmental, structural and cultural variations in and determinants of health, disease, and quality of life will be addressed, including the influence of factors such as race, gender, sexual orientation, geography, ability, biological, genetic and epigenetic factors. Barriers to access and utilization, geopolitical influences, environmental justice

This course will survey the distribution, determinants, and biomedical, psychological and behavioral aspects of health inclusive of physical, mental and behavioral health and disease across the life span from pre-birth to death. Social, economic, environmental, structural and cultural variations in and determinants of health, disease, and quality of life will be addressed, including the influence of factors such as race, gender, sexual orientation, geography, ability, biological, genetic and epigenetic factors. Barriers to access and utilization, geopolitical influences, environmental justice