Healthy early-life development is essential to lifelong physical and emotional wellbeing and depends upon the health, safety, strengths, and resources of the families and communities in which children grow up.

The Children, Youth & Families specialization prepares students to work with children and youth of all ages and identities and their families in direct practice and in medium and large-system settings, using a social/racial justice framework. Major social work practice areas include early intervention; school social work; child protection; family support; promotion of child, youth, and family mental health; and community-based youth initiatives. The specialization prepares students for practice by emphasizing trauma prevention and recognizing oppression—including racism, heterocentrism, ableism, sexism, and classism—as key threats to the optimal development and well-being of children, youth, and families. In doing so, the specialization prepares students to fulfill the responsibility of social workers to disrupt and dismantle these and other forms of oppression.

Requirements

• The Integrative Seminar IS 800, (3 credits) which meets once a month and runs across both semesters of the advanced year. Students in the seminar integrate and apply theory and knowledge to understand policy, research, and practice relevant to children, youth, and families, using social/racial justice and trauma-informed/trauma-prevention frameworks. Topics covered are driven by the interests of participating students.
• Two additional advanced elective courses (6 credits) focusing on children, youth, and/or families (see Advanced Elective Options list below)
• An advanced field placement (clinical or macro) that focuses on children, youth, and/or their families

Advanced Elective Options

• SSW CP 782 Stress and Trauma in the Early Years: Interventions with Young Children and Families
• SSW CP 785 Family Therapy
• SSW CP 787 Clinical Practice with Couples
• SSW CP 791 Family Seminar Seminar
• SSW CP 794 Clinical Practice with Children
• SSW CP 804 Clinical Practice with Childhood Trauma
• SSW HB 727 Child Psychopathology
• SSW HB 743 Social Work with Refugees and Immigrants
• SSW WP 707 Social Welfare Policy and Programs on Children
• SSW WP 710 Family Law and Children’s Rights
• SSW WP 720 Family Policy

Note: Students may seek permission from the specialization coordinator to substitute applicable courses from other graduate programs at Boston University toward satisfaction of the specialization requirement. However, the seminar is required for all students in the specialization.

The Behavioral Health specialization combines theory and skill development to enable MSW graduates to promote behavioral health in multiple domains. It addresses co-occurring problematic substance use with attention to the current opioid overdose crisis, trauma, and stigma, with a focus on communities experiencing disproportionately lower access to services. Students learn to advance racial and health equity by examining how racism is enacted in behavioral health settings through both policies and practice.

The specialization will prepare students to be active members of interdisciplinary teams that provide social work leadership in behavioral health systems to address health inequities and the needs of specific individuals, families, and communities. Program graduates enter the workforce understanding the unique role that social work plays in enhancing prevention and intervention strategies with racial/ethnic and economically diverse populations who are facing multiple challenges in an ever-changing practice environment. The specialization also emphasizes a broad definition of behavioral health, including physical, emotional, psychological, environmental, and other social dimensions—not just the absence of injury or disease. It also reinforces core social work values, including racial, social, and economic justice, human dignity, and working in partnership with individuals and communities.

Requirements

• The Integrative Seminar, IS 801 Behavioral Health (3 credits), which includes mixed teaching and learning methods, both in and out of the classroom, and will require a final project designed to demonstrate attainment of specialization competencies.
• Two elective courses (6 credits) approved for the Behavioral Health specialization (see Advanced Elective Options list below)
• An advanced field placement that focuses on behavioral health

Note: Students may choose any two advanced SSW electives from the list below, or may seek permission from the specialization coordinator to substitute relevant SSW courses or courses from other graduate programs at Boston University, toward satisfaction of the specialization requirement.

Advanced Elective Options

• SSW CP 795 Cognitive and Behavioral Treatment
• SSW CP 798 Psychodynamic Practice with Adults
• SSW CP 799 Brief and Time-Effective Treatment
• SSW CP 803 Clinical Practice with Adult Trauma
• SSW CP 804 Clinical Practice with Childhood Trauma
• SSW CP 809 Substance Use Disorders: Assessment and Intervention
• SSW HB 723 Adult Psychopathology
• SSW HB 727 Child Psychopathology
• SSW HB 749 Health Perspectives
• SSW HB 751 Human Neuropsychology
• SSW WP 705 Mental Health and Social Policy

Aging is a lifelong process involving a complex interplay between biological, psychological, social, economic, and political factors. This specialization applies principles of social justice to analyze conditions that impact the lives of older adults and examines the role of power, privilege, and structural inequality in producing health disparities across the life course. Social workers play a vital role in working with individuals, families, and organizations as well as local, state, and national communities to optimize opportunities for health, economic well-being, and quality of life of older adults.

Requirements

• Monthly integrative field-based seminar through the Lowy-GEM field program with an independent capstone project
• Three advanced elective courses (9 credits)
• An advanced field placement in the area of specialization

Note: Students may also seek permission from the specialization coordinator to substitute applicable courses from other BU schools and the consortium school to fulfill this specialization requirement.

Advanced Elective Options

Any advanced elective courses in Human Behavior (HB) and/or Welfare Policy (WP) with aging content may be used to fulfill the elective requirement for the Aging specialization. Assignments in elective coursework must relate to older adults. Elective options include but are not limited to:

• SSW WP 704 Social Policy and Programs on Aging
• SSW CP 807 Clinical Practice with Older Adults
• SSW HB 756 Theories and Issues in Aging
• SSW HB 723 Adult Psychopathology
• SSW HB 849 Social Perspectives on Health and Illness
• SSW CP 785 Family Therapy

Trauma exposure is nearly universal. The field of trauma has exploded in the last several decades with advances in neurobiology, increased attention to evidence-based and evidence-informed interventions in trauma, and widespread recognition of violence across multiple contexts. Because trauma is a rapidly evolving field, social workers need integrated and cutting-edge training to work with and on behalf of diverse populations who are affected by wide-ranging traumatic experiences, including gender- and race-based violence, interpersonal and/or community violence, natural disasters, combat trauma, and terrorism. Specialization students will learn the foundations of trauma-informed and multi-level practice and policy, and apply this knowledge to prevention, intervention, and policymaking to mitigate the impact of violence and trauma on individuals, families, communities, and societies.

Requirements

• A foundational “platform course, IS 805 Foundations in Trauma-Informed Social Work Practice, Programs & Policy (3 credits), taken prior to elective coursework
• Two additional advanced elective courses (6 credits)
  • Clinical Practice students should plan to take either SSW CP 803 or SSW CP 804, as well as the Advanced Seminar in Clinical Practice (SSW CP 814).
  • Macro students may select other trauma-focused electives within SSW, another BU school, or the consortium.
• An advanced field placement related to trauma and violence

Advanced Elective Options

Macro students must complete two of the following advanced elective options:

• SSW CP 806 Theory and Practice with LGBTQ Populations
• SSW HB 743 Social Work with Refugees and Immigrants
• SSW HB 751 Human Neuropsychology
• SSW HB 752 Exploring Ethnicity, Race, and Culture through Narratives: Clinical and Human Behavior Perspectives
• SSW HB 758 Black Lives Matter: Lessons for Antiracism
• SSW WP 705 Mental Health and Social Policy

Clinical students must choose a sequence and complete both courses in their selected sequence:

Child & Adolescent Sequence

• SSW CP 804 Clinical Practice with Childhood Trauma
• SSW CP 814 Advanced Trauma Seminar

Adult Sequence

• SSW CP 803 Clinical Practice with Adult Trauma
• SSW CP 814 Advanced Trauma Seminar