Social Work
School of Social Work
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Brief and Time-Effective Treatment
SSW CP 799
Grad Prereq: (SSW CP 755 & SSW CP 756 & SSW CP 757). Surveys a range of brief and time-effective treatment models including crisis intervention/single session interventions, solution-focused brief therapy, narrative therapy, and stages of change/motivational interviewing. Students develop skills in brief treatment that can be used with children, adolescents, families, and adults who present with substance use, trauma, depression, anxiety, domestic violence, and other issues of concern in multi-stressed urban populations. Students acquire understanding of the theoretical and empirical bases, strengths, and limitations of each model. Use of in-class and videotaped role plays along with small group exercises help students become more creative, flexible, and accountable in their approaches to treatment, and direct students away from a deficit (pathology) model towards a resource (possibility) treatment model. Students learn to collaborate with clients to create well-formed treatment goals, and to measure change as it occurs over time. Finally, students explore how their own values and beliefs about change may help or hinder clinical practice in the current health care environment. 3 cr. Tuition: $3783
Summer 1 (May 20-June 24)
Pre-req: CP 755/756/757. Nonstandard course dates -
Ethics and the Social Work Profession
SSW ET 753
This required seminar is intended to inspire the moral imagination of social work students, and prepare them for competent and compassionate ethical practice as professionals. Examines the issues of social work professionalism, the process of becoming a social work professional, the tensions inherent in the goals of social work, and the ways these interrelate to produce conflicts of values and ethics in social work practice. Focuses on acquiring and practicing the skills of ethical decision-making, including values clarification, application of ethical theory, utilization of codes of ethics, and models of ethical analysis. Both clinical and macro aspects of social work are explored, with an emphasis on the contemporary challenges of practice in multicultural and urban settings. Issues of self-care, impairment, licensure, malpractice, whistle-blowing, and other professional challenges are explored. The course is set in the advanced curriculum as an integrative capstone, designed to be concurrent with the student's final semester in the MSW program. 3 cr. Tuition: $3783
Summer 1 (May 19-June 18)
Must be in final semester or advanced field placement. Nonstandard course datesSummer 2 (June 30-August 4)
Must be in final semester or advanced field placement. Nonstandard course dates -
Assessment and Differential Diagnosis with Adults
SSW HB 723
Graduate Prerequisites: SSW HB 720 or permission of department chair. - Grad Prereq: (SSW HB 720) or permission of department chair. Provides 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-5, 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-5, 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-5 classification system as a social construction that reveals as much about 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, students work to enhance empathic understanding of 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. 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. 3 cr. Tuition: $3783
Summer 1 (May 21-June 25)
Pre-req: HB 720 or permission of department chair. Nonstandard course dates -
Spirituality and Social Work Practice
SSW HB 744
The focus of this course is to understand how spiritual and religious beliefs, experiences and issues are integrated into our profession and explore their impacts on client systems with whom we work. We discuss the biopsychosocial spiritual model and understand that churches and other religious institutions play substantive roles in individual, and community's lives, considering human and spiritual developmental domains. We look critically at how spirituality and/or religion both can enhance social justice movement building or can become forces of injustice and destruction. In this course, we consider spiritual concepts that underlie much of our professional ethics (e.g., compassion, hope, forgiveness), the roles of spirituality and mindfulness in clinical interventions, the social worker's engagement with their own spirituality, spirituality in activism and social justice, and the spiritual underpinnings over social welfare policy. This course is designed to explore the role of spirituality across micro, mezzo, and macro social work domains, with attention to 2-3 topics each week. Prerequisite: HB720 Introduction to Human Behavior and the Social Environment 3 cr. Tuition: $3783
Summer 2 (July 2-August 6)
Pre-req: HB 720 or permission of department chair. Nonstandard course dates -
Social Work Research 2
SSW SR 744
Graduate Prerequisites: SSW SR743. Required of all students. - Students are introduced to the concepts and procedures that are fundamental to both descriptive and inferential statistics. Empirical research examining the effectiveness of social work practice, particularly in the urban environment, is explored. Utilizing existing national data sets, students generate their own research hypotheses and then formulate and carry out an analytic strategy to answer these questions effectively. Emphasis is also placed on gaining skills in presenting and communicating key findings to relevant audiences and stakeholders. 3 cr. Tuition: $3783
Summer 1 (May 19-June 18)
Pre-req: SR 743 or permission of department chair. Nonstandard course datesSummer 1 (May 20-June 24)
Pre-req: SR 743 or permission of department chair. Nonstandard course dates -
Social Welfare Policy & Programs on Children
SSW WP 707
Graduate Prerequisites: (SSWWP700 & SSWWP701) Or permission of department chair. - Grad Prereq: (SSW WP 700 & SSW WP 701) or permission of department chair. Analyzes emerging issues and ideas about children and how these affect social policy and practice. Reviews major social and demographic changes in the family that affect the development of national policies designed to protect and provide for the care of children. Emphasizes policies in such areas as income provisions, adoption, substitute care, neglect and abuse, social services, and employment. 3 cr. Tuition: $3783
Summer 1 (June 1-July 6)
Pre-req: WP 700 & WP 701 or permission of department chair. Nonstandard course dates