MSW Program
Off-Campus Weekend Programs
Curriculum
Electives
Descriptions
Description of Electives
CP 762 Advanced Group Work
Prereq: SSW CP 759 and CP 760. This course returns to the essential processes of groups. Interactions and content of groups from practice are analyzed in considerable detail, with an eye to several theoretical orientations and to the integration of research. The course elaborates the idea of the group-as-a-whole and focuses on the group tasks of formation, structure and maintenance, individual need satisfaction, and relation to the environment. Students are expected to develop their skills in critical thinking, group method, theoretical frameworks, and individual styles.
CP 785 Family Therapy
Prereq: SSW CP 759, SSW CP 781. This course emphasizes understanding of and intervention in the family system. It presents and contrasts major models of family assessment and treatment relevant to urban family practice. Special attention is given to understanding individuals and families in a multisystemic context and to engaging urban families. Demonstration videos and case consultation/role plays enhance practice.
CP 787 Clinical Practice with Couples
Prereq: SSW CP 759, SSW CP 781 or permission of instructor. This course reviews theories of couple dynamics and process and considers strategies for assessing and treating dyads. Worker-couple dynamics and worker self-awareness are also discussed.
CP 795 Cognitive and Behavioral Treatment
Prereq: SSW CP 759, SSW CP 781. This course provides an overview of the theoretical frameworks underlying cognitive and behavioral treatment procedures. The treatment method of operant procedures for use with problem behaviors and in skill acquisition in children is examined. Also taught are skills training, exposure procedures, and cognitive therapy methods for several disorders. The course addresses client/therapist issues and the use of behavioral methods in group settings. Students conduct a behavioral analysis and single case study of a current case or problem situation.
CP 798 Advanced Clinical Practice with Adults
Prereq: SSW CP 759, SSW CP 781. This course reviews self psychology and theory in elaborating practice with adults. Longer-term treatment is explored using case vignettes from the field and the instructor. The impact of substances, trauma, family life, and social forces on adult "personality style," are elaborated, as well as the effects of oppression on adaptations under stress.
CP 799 Brief and Time-Effective Treatment
Prereq: SSW CP 759, or SSW CP 781. This course surveys a range of brief treatment models supportive of work in today's time-limited or managed care settings. Readings, discussion, and case vignettes help to explore and contrast methods and examine biases toward longer-term work. Topics include models of brief treatment; therapist as a catalyst versus analyst; techniques of client engagement; long-term problems as foci in brief treatment; homework assignments; and managing resistances.
CP 807 Clinical Practice with Older Adults
Prereq: SSW CP 759, SSW CP 781. This course reviews life cycle and other developmental theories informing clinical practice with aging populations. Discussion highlights the impact of poverty, racism, ageism, and changing economics on the biopsychosocial phenomenology of aging in urban environments. Methods and techniques of assessing and interviewing older people, their families, and their networks are taught through case analysis and role play.
CP 809 Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Prereq: SSW CP 759, or SSW CP 781. This course teaches methods for identification, diagnosis, intervention, and referral of the alcoholic and drug abuser in general medical, rehabilitative, and social service settings. It is directed to those who encounter individuals in their clinical practice who are abusing alcohol and other drugs, especially under circumstances in which substance abuse may not be an acknowledged problem. The course provides guidelines for taking a drinking/drug history, working through denial and resistance, examining family dynamics, designing interventions, and making appropriate referrals. Teaching methods include lecture, discussion of readings, case presentation, and film.
CP 794 Clinical Practice with Children and Adolescents
Prereq: SSW CP 759, SSW CP 781. Previous or concurrent practice with children or adolescents desirable. This course focuses on differential assessment and treatment of children and adolescents. It emphasizes activation of an affective relationship, with special attention to transference and counter transference features; the distinction between narrative truth and historic truth; special treatment concerns in work with the severely disturbed child; differentiation of functional, organic, and ethno cultural factors; and use of specialized techniques of treatment (e.g., dramatization, metaphorical communication, and various play techniques and therapeutic games).
WP 704 Social Policy and Programs on Aging
This course explores the development and scope of public policies directed toward older persons. It reviews the provisions and workings of current programs, with special attention to implications for social work practice. Program areas investigated include acute and long-term health care, housing and community-based services, and the formal service structure and its relationship to informal service provision. Finally, the course explores emerging policy innovations in aging, such as public and private insurance for chronic-care needs, life care programs, and proposals for more progressive public policies affecting older Americans.
WP 705 Mental Health and Social Policy
This course provides an understanding of mental health policy and service delivery in the United States and of the impact of mental health policies on social work practice. It reviews multiple perspectives on mental health and mental illness and the history of social policies influencing mental health care. The class examines current trends in service delivery and financing (such as managed care and health insurance reform) and explores legal and ethical issues in the provision of mental health care. Models of family and consumer advocacy and empowerment are considered.
WP 706 Social Welfare Policy and the Family
Profound changes in the structure of American society and in the makeup of the family have stimulated debate about the appropriate role of government in family maintenance and child rearing. This course reviews major social and demographic changes in the family and critical issues in the construction of a national family policy, particularly in the areas of income distribution, child welfare, social services, employment, and health care.
WP 708 Health Policy Issues in the United States
This course examines trends affecting the health care system and the public and private sectors' responses, with particular emphasis on the efficacy of planning and regulation as control and change processes. It explores the relationship between medical practice and the public, and its implications for social work.
WP 710 Family Law and Children's Rights
This course provides a framework for understanding law and social policy. It examines the impact of law on the social work profession. The class discusses issues of marriage and divorce, child custody and support, children's rights, and legal research.
WP 711 Substance Abuse Policy
This course in alcohol and drug policy is designed to provide students with a forum to acquire and synthesize knowledge of policy, research, and service organizations in the field. The course will include topics such as alcohol and drug research, social problems that interface with alcohol and drug policy (e.g., poverty, gender, and race discrimination), key issues, controversies and trends, ethics and values issues, and the role of social work in the field of alcohol and drug policy and research.
HB 723 Adult Psychopathology
This course provides students with a framework for understanding human behavior when there are challenges to healthy functioning. The descriptive approach offered by DSM-IV is used as a basis for assessment and diagnosis, and emphasis is placed on learning about the etiologies, phenomenology, and course of most commonly seen mental disorders. Throughout the course, differing conceptual frameworks and ethical dilemmas in assessment and practice are explored. Case materials from students, from films, and from the instructor are used to help integrate clinical practice concepts.
HB 725 Organizational Culture and Change
This course introduces students to a cultural perspective for the analysis of organizations. It covers the basic principles and develops a critique of this framework. The focus is on how one can investigate organizational cultures, and how such investigations can lead to organizational change. Topics include: power and authority; multicultural membership; approaches to leadership; and the emotional environment of the organization as a vehicle for social change. Case materials focus on human service and social change organizations.
HB 727 Child Psychopathology
This course explores the disorders of childhood from a developmental perspective within a family systems context. It focuses on etiology (biological, psychological, and social), differential diagnosis, and the implications for social work intervention.
HB 732 Perspectives on Family and Diversity
Over time the meaning of the concept of family has changed, as have the ways that families are seen both in theory and in therapy. Research on contemporary U.S. families reveals considerable diversity in kinship, household composition, and family organizations, notably the crucial importance of race/ethnicity, gender, and social class. This course examines several perspectives that inform family therapy (constructivism, systems theory, feminism) and explores what each illuminates about diversity, specifically among black, Latino, Southeast Asian, and gay and lesbian families. The approach throughout links the personal and the social and the family and society.
HB 741 Family Violence in Society
This course introduces students to the effects of family violence on individuals and communities. It addresses the reciprocal relationship between social research, human behavior in the social environment, and clinical practice, and examines implications for clinical application. Special focus is given to the treatment of children, women, and elders affected by the violence of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. In addition clinical interventions for batterers who perpetrate physical and sexual abuse will be discussed. This course examines family violence from an ecological perspective and is relevant to social work treatment with all populations and age groups.
HB 743 Social Work with Refugees and Immigrants
This course provides a global context for understanding the forces leading to migration and an overview of the refugee and immigrant "experience." It introduces key concepts, variations, and issues related to acculturation and adaptation. Culturally competent practice with newcomer individuals, families, and communities is examined, with particular attention to issues of cultural differences, legacies of trauma, "transcontinental" lives, concepts of health and mental health, and differential engagement, assessment, and intervention techniques. Students will have the opportunity to explore actively a newcomer population of their choice.
HB 744 Spirituality and Social Work Practice
Based on the assumption that social work is a profession that wants to understand the whole person-in-the-environment, this course explores the interrelationship between spirituality and social work practice. In this course "spirituality" explores the human longing for a sense of meaning through morally responsible relationships among diverse individuals, families, communities, cultures, and religions. The course provides a general framework for spiritually sensitive practice, and students formulate individual practice frameworks derived from assignments, class discussion, personal interests, ethics, and values. This course presents an integrative, multidisciplinary approach. Comparative religious studies, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and social work provide historical, cultural, and religious background and philosophy to this course and social work practice.
