Courses

• SSW CP 809: Alcoholism and Drug Abuse: Identification and Early Intervention
  Students learn methods for identification, diagnosis, intervention, and referral of substance-abusing clients and clients with co-occurring mental health problems in a range of settings. The course helps students work with clients who are unaware of their problem or not ready to address it, as well as clients in treatment and those in relapse. Students take drinking/drug histories, assess clients stage of readiness for change, estimate problem severity, and negotiate treatment goals. Attention is paid to family issues, harm reduction approaches, use of evidence-based treatments, and the role of 12-Step Programs in supporting recovery. Teaching methods include lecture, skill practice, video demonstrations, and case consultation.
• SSW FE 800: Integrative Field Seminar
  The focus of this seminar is professional development and the role of the social work intern in the agency. The seminar meets several times each semester. Instructor sets schedule. Attendance is required.
• SSW FE 801: Field Education I
  Required of all students in their first semester of the first (foundation) field placement. Also required to be registered for a methods course.
• SSW FE 802: Field Education II
  Required of all students in their second semester of the first (foundation) field placement. Also required to be registered for a methods course.
• SSW FE 803: Field Education III
  Required of all students in their first semester of the standard second (advanced) field placement. Also required to be registered for a methods course.
• SSW FE 804: Field Education IV
  Required of all students in their second semester of the standard second (advanced field placement). Also required to be registered for a methods course.
• SSW FE 805: Advanced Field Placement: Non-Standard 1
  First semester of non-standard advanced placement (i.e. 12 month or modified block)
• SSW FE 806: Advanced Field Placement: Non-Standard 2
  Second semester of non-standard advanced placement (i.e. 12 month or modified block)
• SSW FE 807: Advanced Field Placement: Non-Standard 3
  Third semester of non-standard advanced placement (i.e. 12 month or modified block)
• SSW HB 720: Human Behavior in the Social Environment
  This course constitutes the foundation course in the Human Behavior Department and is a prerequsite for all other courses in the HBSE sequence. The goal of the course is to enable students to develop a framework for analyzing human behavior in order to create empathic, empowering relationships with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. A select set of theories is presented to enable students to examine how individuals and communities develop and interact. We also consider how oppression, power and privilege, and culture and cultural contexts can shape individual values, beliefs, worldviews, and identities, all of which play a role in the helping process. Finally, we examine human development throughout the lifespan, considering the developmental scientific knowledge base regarding opportunities and vulnerabilities present during the different stages of the lifecycle, and the biopsychosocial and cultural factors that can influence individual development. The ability to analyze human behavior in the social environment, drawing from theoretically and empirically grounded evidence bases is essential for all forms of social work practice.
• SSW HB 723: Adult Psychopathology
  The goal of this course is to provide students with a framework for understanding human behavior when challenges to healthy adult functioning overwhelm coping mechanisms and resources. A biopsychosocial model of psychopathology is emphasized as we study some of the disorders classified in the DSM-IV, including anxiety disorders, mood disorders, psychotic disorders, PTSD, dissociative disorders, personality disorders, eating disorders, and substance abuse/addictions. Complex factors in the etiology of various disorders are considered, including genetic, neurochemical, biological, developmental, familial, sociocultural, and political variables that affect the occurrence, presentation, course, and treatment of a problem. While learning the perspective and language of the phenomenological approach outlined in the DSM-IV, we also highlight weaknesses and blind spots in the traditional approach to diagnoses. In particular, we explore the impact of oppression and bias on the naming and treatment of mental disorders, including the influences of race, gender, sexual orientation, class, disability, religion, and ethnicity on the diagnostic process. Students learn to consider the DSM-IV classification system as a social construction that reveals as much about the society and its views of human behavior as it does about the clients with whom social workers have contact. While this course is not designed to focus on treatment, students have the opportunity to consider how diagnoses inform treatment and review current research on both biological and psychosocial treatments for different disorders. Finally, we seek to enhance empathic understanding of our clients? experiences and the experiences of their families and loved ones, remembering that people are not their diagnoses, that what is labeled individual ?pathology? may be an adaptive response to oppressive external circumstances, and that people who experience a breakdown in functioning demonstrate not only difficulties but also compelling strengths. This course employs lecture, large and small group discussion, case presentations, and videotapes. Clinical vignettes from instructors and class are used to illustrate mental disorders and theoretical perspectives, and make material relevant to clinical practice, particularly with urban populations
• SSW HB 727: Child Psychopathology
  Grad Prereq: SSW HB 720 or permission of department chair. *This course uses a developmental psychopathological model to explore complex psychological disturbances in children, adolescents, and families with a focus on the urban family experience. It addresses multiple research and theoretical perspectives that promote a way of understanding ?normal? and ?pathological? child and adolescent behaviors that change over time in the context of their genetic make-up, biological processes, interpersonal relationships, culture, and available community resources and support. In this course, developmental, systemic, psychodynamic, neurobiological and behavioral theoretical perspectives inform students? understanding of children and adolescents? adaptive and maladaptive patterns of behavior, which evolve over time in the context of their complex developmental histories and socio-cultural relational experiences. The course promotes the importance of assessing in children and families both the historical and present risks for disturbed behavioral development and the historical and present protective factors that promote healthy and resilient behavioral development. Implied throughout the course curriculum is the perspective that a deep understanding of children?s adaptations to stress and trauma is central in the social worker?s role of making informed and accurate assessments and diagnostic evaluations of children, adolescents, and families. Discussion of clinical case material and relevant research assists students in learning to assess children and adolescents? current, unique developmental needs and strengths with a goal of empowering them to find pathways of behavior that better meet these developmental needs and give freedom to the deepening of these strengths. 3 cr.
• SSW HB 729: Human Sexuality
  Through readings, discussion, lectures, guest speakers, films, and other methods, students explore the broad range of issues concerning human sexuality. This course covers the facts of human sexuality and reproductive health. Students examine their own values and opinions concerning sexuality. There is an opportunity to discuss improving communication with clients about sexual issues, with an emphasis on examining client resistance to talking about sexual issues, and the impact of the social worker's discomfort with or avoidance of this topic. This course also considers the rationale for including sexual issues with client interactions, as well as the importance of taking a sexual history as a part of any clinical interaction.
• SSW HB 735: Racial Justice and Cultural Oppression
  This course examines the social psychological, and institutional causes and implications of racism as a dynamic force influencing social work. The course builds on and integrates concepts presented in foundation courses. It analyzes and evaluates the social, cultural, political, economic, and interpersonal contexts of racism that bear on our current policies and institutional arrangements. The course is designed to familiarize students with 1) theoretical overviews of race and racism; 2)historical accounts and contemporary experiences of racism; 3) the formation of racial identity; 4) multicultural contexts and fundamentals of cultural competency; and 5) effective social change efforts based on organizational analysis.
• SSW HB 741: Family Violence in Society
  This course introduces students to the dynamics of family violence and its multiple effects on children, adults, and communities. It draws from current evidence from social work, the social sciences, and neurobiology to frame our theoretical understanding of family violence. We also review a number of prevention and intervention programs for a variety of populations. Special attention is given to the impact of violence upon vulnerable populations, including women, children, and elders. The course also discusses current knowledge regarding the perpetration of family violence, with a specific focus on intimate partner violence, child physical abuse, and child sexual abuse. The course equips students to work competently and in an evidence-informed manner in family violence research, advocacy, practice ,and policy. Specifically, students deepen their understanding of the following: theoretical frameworks for understanding the etiology and dynamics of multiple forms of family violence in society, the historical and contemporary influences in current social policy related to family violence, and prevention and intervention approaches for individuals and communities affected by family violence.
• SSW HB 743: Social Work with Refugees and Immigrants
  Social workers and other mental health and social service practitioners find themselves increasingly called upon to work with refugees and immigrants from around the world. Social workers are also becoming sought after by international development agencies and non-governmental organizations. In this course we gain an understanding of the refugee and immigrant experience and of the continuum of the acculturation process. We examine the potential problems facing these individuals and families as they seek to rebuild their lives; we learn to recognize and utilize their strengths, cultural resources and natural support systems; and we increase our cultural competence by learning skills for culturally appropriate relationship-building, clinical assessment, and intervention.
• SSW HB 744: Spirituality and Social Work Practice
  The goal of this course is to acquaint the student with current theories regarding religion and spirituality and their role in clinical work. Particular attention is given to the function of spirituality and religion in bridging internal and external adaptations throughout the life cycle. Utilizing psychodynamic and narrative frameworks, this course addresses ways of assessing and working with an individual?s spiritual and existential belief systems and attending to the ways in which spiritual beliefs and practices provide a window into a client?s inner world. In addition, the course addresses issues of transference and countertransference as they arise in the exploration of religious and spiritual material in psychotherapy. The course draws heavily on case material, film, and fiction.
• SSW HB 746: Resilience Across the Lifespan
  Humans have an amazing capacity to adapt well to adversity?a phenomenon known as resilience. This course uses a resilience framework to explore development across the lifespan, with implications for social work practice. The approach presumes that resilience results from dynamic interactions between individuals and their environments, and that every person has the potential to overcome significant challenge at any point in the life course. The construct of resilience has become well-used in social science fields, perhaps as a reaction to deficit models of development, or as part of a renewed focus on human strengths. As a result, greater attention is paid to those who do well ?despite the odds,? and on the environmental contexts that support these adaptations. The course examines conceptual, empirical, and applied work on resilience, including new and sometimes controversial applications of resilience theory to social work practice with individuals, families, and communities.
• SSW HB 747: Childhood Maltreatment & Social Work Practice: Developmental Perspectives
  By virtue of their direct practice roles in a range of agencies that offer health and human services to children, youth, and families, social workers are in an ideal position to address childhood maltreatment and their developmental sequelae. This course uses an ecological perspective, risk/resilience framework, and developmental perspective to examine conceptual, empirical, and applied work on childhood maltreatment such as physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect. We will examine, from a variety of theoretical frameworks, the factors, indicators, and dynamics associated with childhood maltreatment. Prevention, practice, policy and research issues will be critically assessed. Particular attention will be given to understanding developmental sequelae of childhood maltreatment, including emotional/behavioral problems and addictive behaviors.
• SSW HB 749: Social Perspectives on Health and Illness
  This course is designed to orient students toward major contemporary health issues and to foster an understanding of the way that social, environmental, and cultural contexts can contribute to either health or illness. The course is premised on the notion that understanding how context influences these outcomes is of direct importance to social work practice in a variety of domains. The course is organized into three modules. The first introduces students to important historical, theoretical, and current perspectives on health and illness and provides the groundwork for the rest of the course. The second module focuses on health and illness using the social ecology of health model. The last module focuses on emergent issues in health and illness, integrating the knowledge from the first two modules in order to demonstrate to students the multitude of ways in which social contexts can jointly promote health-related outcomes.

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