IU School of Social Work is headquartered on the IUPUI campus with locations on 8 IU Campuses. The school also has the Department of Labor Studies
The description and model syllabi can be found within the link of the course.
The description and model syllabi can be found within the link of the course.
IU School of Social Work is headquartered on the IUPUI campus with locations on 8 IU Campuses. The school also has the Department of Labor Studies
IU School of Social Work Headquarters
PartnershipsOffice of Education AssessmentThe Office of Education Assessment is responsible for the evaluation of student learning outcomes at the BSW and MSW level for the Indiana School of Social Work.
ToolsThis course includes coverage of historical development, labor law basics, and contemporary issues. It also discusses a survey of labor unions in the United States, focusing on their organization and their representational, economic, and political activities.
This course explores the struggles of working people to achieve dignity and security from social, economic, and political perspectives. It also explores a survey of the origin and development of unions and the labor movement from colonial times to the present.
This course serves as an orientation for the study of labor history. It explores both critical and historical methodologies based on primary and secondary sources, biases, and interpretations. Discussions focus on selective questions and events.
This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary and advocacy approach of labor studies. Exploring labor’s role in society, the class will look at how unions have changed the lives of working people and contributed to better social policies. Discussions will highlight the relationship of our work lives to our non-work lives and will look at U.S. labor relations in a comparative framework.
Required for all Labor Studies program majors. This course introduces the Labor Studies degree and to the knowledge and skills needed by students to progress toward a degree in a reasonable time frame. Students will learn how to build a plan of study that takes advantage of both credit for prior learning and new learning opportunities.
Emphasis for this course is placed on developing learning
portfolios as foundation documents for academic self-assessment and planning and as applications for self-acquired competency (SAC) credit. This course applies only as elective credit to labor studies degrees.
This course explores statutes and common-law actions protecting income, working conditions, and rights of workers. Topics include workers’ compensation, unemployment compensation, fair labor standards, Social Security, retirement income protection, and privacy and other rights.
This course reviews a survey of the law governing labor-management relations. Topics include the legal framework of collective bargaining, problems in the administration and enforcement of agreements, and protection of individual employee rights.
This course examines federal, state, and local governmental effects on workers, unions, and labor-management relations; political goals; influences on union choices of strategies and modes of political participation, past and present; relationships with community and other groups.
This course examines some of the major problems confronting society, workers, and the labor movement. Topics may include automation, unemployment, international trade, environmental problems, minority and women’s rights, community relations, and changing government policies.
This course examines policies and practices that contribute to workplace discrimination and those designed to eliminate it. It explores effects of job discrimination and occupational segregation. It analyzes Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and related topics in relation to broader strategies for addressing discrimination.
This course looks at union representation in the workplace. It evaluates uses of grievance procedures to address problems and administer the collective bargaining agreement. It also explores analyses of relevant labor law and the logic applied by arbitrators to grievance decisions. Students learn about the identification, research, presentation, and writing of grievance cases.
This course analyses aspects of the political economy of labor and the role of organized labor within it. It emphases the effect on workers, unions, collective bargaining of unemployment, investment policy, changes in technology and corporate structure. It also explores patterns of union political and bargaining responses.
This course explores the globalization of trade, production, and migration and the effects of these processes on American workers. Through reading, discussion, and problem formation, students will critically think about the ways global processes and policies impact American workers’ daily lives, analyze existing historical and current justifications for offshore production and the dismantling of barriers to trade and investment, and explore alternatives to these policies.
This course reviews elements and issues of occupational health and safety and emphases the union’s role in the implementation of workplace health and safety programs, worker and union rights, hazard recognition techniques, and negotiated and statutory remedies—in particular the OSHA Act of 1970.
This course provides collective bargaining simulations and other participatory experiences in conjunction with L250. L250 is either a prerequisite or a core requisite.
This course explores union organization and representation of state and municipal government employees, including patterns in union structure, collective bargaining, grievance representation, and applicable law.
This course evaluates organizational leadership issues for union, community, and other advocate organizations. It analyzes leadership styles, membership recruitment, and leadership development. It examines the role of leaders in internal governance and external affairs, including committee building, delegation, negotiations, and coalition building.
This course provides an analysis of the growth, composition, structure, behavior, and governmental processes of U.S. labor organizations, from the local to the national federation level. It considers the influence on unions of industrial and political environments; to organizational behavior in different types of unions; and to problems in union democracy.
This course explores the origins of white privilege from the era of industrialization and the rise of the factory system in the US, the manifestations of white privilege in today’s workplace and the mechanisms by which white privilege creates workplace advantages and inequalities. The foundational materials include the scholarship of W.E. B. DuBois (1925), David Roediger (1999-2005), Herbert Gutman (1973), Edgar Schein (1990) and Nkomo (2014). The interrogation of white privilege in the workplace is viewed through the lens of organizational analysis and political economy theory.
This course explores the impact of global supply chains (GSCs) on workers’ abilities to maintain adequate living standards, the regulatory frameworks under which trade, investment and taxation occur, and the strategies/tactics workers can use to create an alternative governing structure which promotes sustainable work and development within the GSC.<strong> </strong>
This course explores various approaches and problems in private- and public-sector organizing. Traditional approaches are evaluated considering structural changes in labor markets and workforce demographics. Topics range from targeting and assessments to committee building and leadership development.
This is a capstone experience for associate degree students.
This course, situated in political economy theory of discrimination, interrogates workplace challenges women experience. Discussions include women’s position and participation in the workforce within the context of race, class, and gender. Strategies and initiatives to correct gender and wage disparities, job insecurity, and sexual harassment and create inclusive workplaces follows.
This course examines media (and, in turn, public) understanding of the U.S. labor movement and analyzes reaction to some specific, highly publicized strikes. News media have rarely served as independent storytellers of strikes. Instead they have told stories that are aligned with the generally antilabor interests of corporate America (including their publishers and parent media corporations). Even among more liberal media, "ordinary" workers are often portrayed as a passive mass that is controlled and directed by unions and labor leaders. It is rare to see any news outlet sympathetic to the beliefs and causes of labor or to striking workers. This course will be driven by the overarching question of why that might be.
This course examines media (and, in turn, public) understanding of the U.S. labor movement and analyzes reaction to some specific, highly publicized strikes. News media have rarely served as independent storytellers of strikes. Instead they have told stories that are aligned with the generally antilabor interests of corporate America (including their publishers and parent media corporations). Even among more liberal media, "ordinary" workers are often portrayed as a passive mass that is controlled and directed by unions and labor leaders. It is rare to see any news outlet sympathetic to the beliefs and causes of labor or to striking workers. This course will be driven by the overarching question of why that might be.
This course will examine the causes, preventions, and individual risks for workers from the real/perceived threat of violence in the workplace. We will identify behavioral, environmental, and administrative factors that contribute or prevent the incidents of violence in the workplace.
This one-credit course will briefly examine all aspects of workplace and academic sexual harassment, including but not limited to definitions, history, federal and state law, EEOC guidelines and procedures, employer and school liability, personnel, school and contract language and policies, and personal perspectives. Reasons for and solutions to workplace and academic sexual harassment will be discussed.
American Dream in an Age of Decline is the interdisciplinary exploration of frameworks within which the notion of the American Dream has been constructed and changed over time in relation to the working class. What is the American Dream? How do the dreamers envision equality in their societies? How do perceptions of and struggles for equality impact definitions of success and happiness? There is no simple response that would be sufficient to these questions. In this course, we will examine what has happened to the American Dream and the life chances of working people. We will focus on the present state of working Americans and see how the standard of living for Americans has been affected (defined) by the larger social, political and economic environments.
Health Care Staffing and Total Worker Health will explore the theory and practice of workforce staffing in health care considering the impact of health care management decisions related to staffing on quality of care for patients and occupational health for workers. Theoretical perspectives, research, union contracts and definitional constructs will be examined and discussed. Participants will work in individually and in pairs to research and explore health care staffing in specific segments of the health care industry and propose an action research project as a synthesis of their learning.
This class will examine the 1993 Family Medical Leave Act law that has given employees new rights to request leave from their employer. We will review the history of the passage of the FMLA and will examine maternity leave, parental leave, sick leave, and protections for disabled workers in US and other countries.
This one (1) credit will examine the dynamics of workplace bullying. We will analyze the factors that contribute to bullying in the workplace. We will examine the types of personalities that allows bullies to perpetrate the harm and how bullies threaten, intimidate, humiliate, and sabotage both targets and workplace productivity.
This course considers ways in which educational researchers and policy makers have identified, examined, and sought to address the goals and challenges of preK-12 public education in the United States. Key characteristics like accountability and testing, desegregation and diversity, school choice and the impact of charter schools, and teachers’ alternative certification are explored. The course is designed to encourage a wide range of viewpoints, and the course readings come from a variety of disciplines including political science, public policy, sociology, anthropology, education, and media reports.
This course explores the ethical decision-making and behavior in a unionized workplace, based on the values and social justice mission of unions. Students will examine what constitutes ethical standards on issues such as affirmative action, transparency, membership involvement, and democratic procedures. This includes the philosophical and theoretical bases for ethics and discussions on the relationship between law and ethics in dealing with workplace conflict.
This course examines how work is organized and how jobs are evaluated, measured, and controlled. It explores social and technical elements of work through theories of scientific management, the human relations school of management, and contemporary labor process literature.
(Recommended only after L220 or with permission of instructor.) This course explores the legal and practical context of grievance arbitration, and its limitations and advantages in resolving workplace problems. Varieties of arbitration clauses and the status of awards are also explored. Students analyze research, prepare, and present cases in mock arbitration hearings.
This course uses a political economy framework to explore and compare countries’ systems of labor relations, drawing from at least three continents. It analyzes the diverse approaches to the structure of twenty-first century labor law and social policy. It focuses on the role of organized labor in the global economy, patterns of breakdown in the enforcement of labor and employment law, and union and nonunion political and bargaining responses.
This course addresses local manifestations of global problems confronting society, workers, and the labor movement. Students will cooperatively analyze issues, propose potential solutions, and engage in activities or practices that address globally driven local issues. Students will identify governmental, non-governmental, and charitable organizations that aid in ameliorating local problems. As a final project, students will design collaborative solutions based on our contemporary global situation in which work is characterized by flexibility, insecurity, and geographic mobility.
This course focuses on selected topics in collective bargaining and will include readings and discussions on workplace issues that may be remedied through the collective bargaining process. A research paper is usually required.
This course covers practical and theoretical perspectives on strategic planning, budgeting, and organizational decision making. It addresses the needs and problems of union leaders by studying organizational change, staff development, and cohesiveness within a diverse workforce. This course may be repeated for up to 3 credits with department approval.
This course examines the relationship between religion and the labor movement as it has developed in the United States over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. Students will analyze the approach taken by religious institutions concerning workers’ issues and assess the tradition in which workers of faith connect to more secular concerns for social and economic justice.
This course examines various perspectives on the origin, development, and goals of organized labor. Theories include those that view the labor movement as a business union institution, an agent for social reform, a revolutionary force, a psychological reaction to industrialization, a moral force, and an unnecessary intrusion.
This course introduces students to the complex realities of Latinos in the United States. Focusing on the topics of work and migration, the course explores how labor and work drive the migration process through the active recruitment of Latino immigrants by U.S. companies searching for workers who will accept lower wages & poor working conditions and includes the search for work on the part of Latino people whose homelands and economies have been controlled, distorted, and devastated to serves the interests of U.S. corporations and military actions.
This course explores the paradox between issues of diversity and income inequality in contemporary society and provides a critical focal point for examining the way in which claims for diversity and mounting inequality are interrelated. The continued and expanding inequality in American society despite expanding initiatives to address racial, gender, and ethnic inequality suggests the need to dive more deeply into political debates addressing inequality and its impact on employment and workers in the US through the critical examination of cause and effect of long-term inequality, benefits and limits of diversity policies, and identification of competing strategies to address these issues.
This course provides a historical overview of the impact and interplay of class, race, and gender on shaping U.S. labor markets, organizations, and policies. It examines union responses and strategies for addressing class, race, and gender issues.
This course provides an overview of work-family policy in the US and other high-income countries, comparing and contrasting the problems and solutions experienced by working people who are caring for family members. This course takes the view that we will be a happier and healthier society if we find ways to make these two spheres compatible. This is an introductory interdisciplinary analysis of how explicit and implicit policies impose stress and impossible roles on mothers, fathers, care-givers of all kinds, and low-income parents in particular.
The Industrial Workers of the World (known as the IWW or <em>the Wobblies</em>) represented an alternative to the conservative and legalistic tradition in US trade unions. Organized in 1905, it spearheaded labor organization among workers left out of the craft-unionist American Federation of Labor. Before it was effectively destroyed as a labor union due to extreme repression during the First World War, the IWW brought labor organization to sectors as diverse as northwestern lumberjacks, California migrants, Eastern immigrant textile workers, and African American dock workers. Although its peak years ended around 1920 (it still exists as an organization) it “spirit” remains. Not only is the anthem of the US labor movement “Solidarity Forever” an IWW song, the IWW influenced the organization of the CIO unions during the 1930s, and the United Farm Workers Union in the 1960s.
This course explores “big box” retail stores and their impact on labor and local communities. The course examines how big box stores affect economics, environment, and the workforce and the ways in which a growing number of communities and independent businesses are effectively fighting back.
In this compressed course participants will learn about the roles, expectations and protections for essential workers during a pandemic. The definition of an essential worker, protections and risk factors will be explored and discussed. Guiding constructs include health equity, the precautionary principle and total worker health. Participants will explore definitions of standard and non-standard employment and learn about the challenges and consequences for the health and safety of workers. The course will conclude with case descriptions regarding the tools used by labor and outcomes for workers. Participants will identify priority action steps to protect essential workers and policies that link with structures impacting health.
This course provides an overview of the field of women/ gender and development in low-income nations in Asia, Africa, and Latin America and will cover the main debates in this field, including the ways in which gender relations within households and communities affect women's employment and working conditions,
the differential impact of globalization on women and men in agriculture, the informal sector, and the formal labor force, health issues, population control, climate change, and migration as seen through a gender lens, and effects of global financial crises on women.
Prior learning assessment (PLA): This course involves PLA credit to be earned for equivalent college-level knowledge gained from previous work experience, military training, or community engagement and showcased in a comprehensive portfolio through written or digital reflections documenting competencies gained through prior learning experiences. Student work is certified/approved for credit by a faculty committee.
This course uses historical, analytical, and comparative perspectives to examine labor movements and labor relations in industrial societies. It also emphases interactions between unions and political organizations, national labor policies, the resolution of workplace problems, the organization of white-collar employees, and the issues of worker control and codetermination.
This course applies classroom knowledge in the field. L420 may be repeated for a maximum of 6 credit hours.
This course focuses on the study of research design, methods, techniques, and procedures applicable to research problems in labor studies.
This course can be used as a classroom seminar or directed reading course. It addresses current issues, historical developments, and other labor-related concerns. Topics may vary each semester.
This course explores the political limits placed on working class power in the United States over time and its effect on workers and their organizations. An essential part of the course will focus on the different ways in which power and class intersect in the American political structure and where socioeconomic limits are transformed into political constraints. Using the American political structure as the back drop, students will examine basic concepts of power and how concepts of power translate into practical political boundaries that must be overcome if labor is to grow and expand its influence in the American political process. Essential for this discussion is the debate of how power is exercised in American society, power in our discussion is real, with deep rooted political implications and not simply an exercise of understanding how far we have come from the democratic premises of the country’s founders.
This is a variable credit course. L495 may be repeated for a maximum of 6 credit hours. Students arrange to study with an individual labor studies faculty member, designing a course of study to suit their individual and varied needs and interests. The contract might include reading, directed application of prior course work, tutorials, or internships. Competencies are assessed through written papers, projects, reports, or interviews.
This course uses historical, analytical, and comparative perspectives to examine labor movements and labor relations in industrial societies. It also emphases interactions between unions and political organizations, national labor policies, the resolution of workplace problems, the organization of white-collar employees, and the issues of worker control and codetermination.
This course covers theories and models that enhance understanding of our diverse society. It provides content about differences and similarities in the experiences, needs, and beliefs of selected minority groups and their relation to the majority group.
This course covers theories and models that enhance understanding of our diverse society. It provides content about differences and similarities in the experiences, needs, and beliefs of selected minority groups and their relation to the majority group.
This course provides a comprehensive overview of the child welfare system, with special emphasis on current child protection and child welfare services in Indiana. Students in this course may be interested in exploring careers working with children and families in the child welfare system. Topics covered will include the historical roots of child welfare policy and services; societal, familial and individual risk and protective factors for child abuse and neglect; an overview of the types of services provided to children and their families in their homes, in the community and in placement; the roles and challenges of the child welfare worker; and the ethical and legal basis for federal and local child welfare practice. The course will also discuss issues in family diversity and cultural competence required for child welfare practice today.
Given current changing demographics, complex social problems, human service providers will serve a more diverse and perhaps more vulnerable population. A large number of clients will find it challenging to access the maze of increasingly decentralized social services. Case management may help to address some of these issues. This course will introduce various case management models and the roles and functions of case managers. It will highlight the nature of client participation and the mutuality of the helping process. Ethics and ethical dilemmas will be addressed. Skills for client centered, culturally competent case management will be explored.
This course prepares BSW students to successfully complete scholarly writing tasks. Topics addressed include expectations and standards for scholarly writing, conducting searches of professional literature, using effective paraphrasing and summarization skills, writing logically and coherently, and appropriately citing references adhering to APA format. The course is intended to support students’ efforts on writing tasks assigned in future courses.
This course assists the undergraduate social work student in building a foundation for understanding human behavior and development in diverse contexts across the life course.
This course is designed to provide a historical perspective on the evolution of social welfare policies and programs and allow students to develop beginning policy analysis skills so that students will be able to identify gaps in the service delivery system and inequitable or oppressive aspects of current policy delivery.
Introductory field experience for testing interest in a social work career.
Case Management Field Experience is an experiential learning course for students seeking the Case Management Certificate but who are NOT enrolled in the BSW degree program. The educational focus is the preparation of students for generalist case management practice through the opportunity for agency-based learning experiences that allow for demonstration of learning outcomes identified for the Certificate in Case Management. Building upon knowledge and skills provided in previous and concurrent coursework required for the certificate, students complete a minimum of 160 hours of supervised practice in a community agency as well as participate in a bi-weekly seminar with assignments designed to integrate theoretical knowledge with agency experience. This course affords students an opportunity to apply interaction skills and theoretical knowledge within the organizational structure of a human service agency.
The purpose of this course is to provide a comprehensive introduction to culturally competent social work practice around the area of religion and spirituality. This course will explore contemporary issues related to spirituality, religion, and social work. Students will learn about the history of spirituality and religion in helping professions and major social movements in the United States. Students will also learn about the views of religion and spirituality in social work and the history of how these areas have been explored or supported by our profession. Students will also learn about discipline appropriate boundaries with their own personal religious, spiritual, or nonreligious views and client interactions.
Until recently, it has been considered taboo for social workers to discuss these issues with clients, despite the importance a client might place on religion or spirituality in their personal lives. Through this course, the controversy and opposing views on this topic will be explored. Culturally competent practices will be examined in working with individuals and groups from religious, non-religious, and spiritual perspectives. Marginalized and oppressed populations, including religious minorities and specific populations will be discussed throughout this course.
Social workers and other helping professions regularly come into contact with people who have a wide range of religious and spiritual traditions that are often different than that of the professional. Social workers have a responsibility to view the whole person, and to treat that person as a whole person. Religion and spirituality can be intrinsically tied to someone’s cultural identity and impact every aspect of their life. Someone’s religious, spiritual, or nonreligious views or traditions may also play a significant role in their personal wellbeing and their views on their world. This course will explore religious, spiritual, and nonreligious traditions and how they impact a person or group’s life. Culturally sensitive practice and assessment will be explored in this course. Through our text, reading articles, and immersion assignments students will be exposed to wide range of religious, spiritual, and nonreligious traditions in an effort to increase cultural competency in the realm of spirituality and religion. This should give future social workers a strong foundation for culturally competent and spiritually sensitive practice with clients from any spiritual or religious tradition.
This course is designed to develop trauma-informed generalist practitioners who are able to apply a trauma conceptual framework to interventions at the micro, mezzo and macro levels. This BSW social work elective will introduce students to the Core Concepts of trauma-informed generalist social work practice. Using a problem-based learning (PBL) approach, it will deepen students’ understanding of and ability to work with individuals, families and communities impacted by traumatic events.
Trauma is broadly defined, and includes children and adolescents exposed to traumatic events including, but not limited to: natural disasters, community violence, war, abuse and neglect, medical treatment and witnessing interpersonal crime (e.g. domestic violence).
Emphasis will be placed on developing the knowledge, values and skills needed for trauma-informed BSW level practice as advocates, brokers, community change agents, counselors and mediators. Students will learn to assess and effectively intervene and collaborate with systems BSW level social worker professionals commonly work in and with, including: schools, health care settings, mental health facilities and child protective services. Client-centered trauma-informed care will be emphasized throughout the course as will the skills required to effectively assess and intervene to help children, families and communities impacted by trauma. The role that development, culture and empirical evidence play in working with children, adolescents and families who have experienced trauma will be highlighted throughout the course.
Working with persons experiencing poverty is a major focus of the social work profession. The primary purpose of this course is to examine the nature of poverty, both rural and urban, in the United States. To achieve this purpose, we will explore and examine the history of poverty in the United States, theories about the causes of poverty, and the effects of poverty on individual development. We will also examine the demographics of poverty and reflect on the co-occurrence of poverty and oppression. Finally, we will examine various policies and programs that have been designed to alleviate poverty, the effects and consequences of these efforts, and will explore and propose other possible intervention strategies.
In this course, the basic structure and operation of the legal systems in the U.S. and in Indiana are outlined as well as the interface between social work and the law. In this course, students deepen their understanding of the legal aspects of social work in a variety of areas such as criminal law, education, family law, domestic violence, child welfare, healthcare, and other laws that coincide with the profession of social work. In order to successfully begin ameliorating social inequities, social workers must use knowledge of law and social work to be effective advocates.
This course will explore contemporary issues related to domestic violence, also known as Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). Students will review the history of the movement to end domestic violence. Theories of the cause of domestic violence will be surveyed along with local, state, federal and international public policy issues. Prevention and intervention models relevant to social work and other helping professions will be explored, as well as community level practice and contemporary research issues.
In 1996, Congress passed and President Clinton signed a welfare reform bill that represented a sharp break from the past. This course analyzes the origins of the law and its initial outcomes. The course will review social science and legal thinking about welfare programs and policies, emphasizing how they are influenced by and how they affect trends in the labor market and family structure.
This course is designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to child abuse and neglect from psychological, social, cultural, legal, and economic perspectives. Social workers in all professional work settings must know how to identify child maltreatment and family violence. Students must also be able to practice without discrimination and with respect, knowledge, and skills related to the clients’ age, class, color, culture, disability, ethnicity, family structure, gender, marital status, national origin, race, religion, sex, and sexual orientation. Students will learn the family dynamics and indicators of maltreatment and effective interventions at the micro, mezzo, and macro level, with an emphasis on strengths based, family-centered intervention strategies.
This is an elective, issue-oriented course at the undergraduate level offered as part of the Certificate in Case Management. This course focuses on the increasing number of complex and painful personal, couple and family crisis situations encountered by professional social workers in the course of service delivery. Crisis events are characterized by high stress responses in one or more persons within a short period of time, usually in response to some difficult social, interpersonal, intrapsychic, medical or developmental triggering events.
This is an elective web-based course that will explore the complex components of grief and loss throughout the life span from an ecological and strength based theoretical perspective. The focus of the course will be to increase understanding, knowledge and compassion related to the impact of grief and loss on individuals, families, and communities at large. In addition, the course gives students an opportunity to explore and understand their perceptions and beliefs on death and dying, and how individual cultural differences influence that experience.
The purpose of this course is to give students an overview of the field of addiction (alcohol & drugs) including discussion of several conceptual models and theories. The course focuses on self-help groups, assessment procedures, and current intervention strategies. Students are given an opportunity to explore special issues in the field among oppressed minorities that are of particular interest to them and to share their findings with other students. Emphasis will also be placed on introducing students to the particular culture and ideologies that contribute to the provision of services in the field of addictions. A brief overview on other addictions (gambling, sex, food) will be presented.
The course examines the significance of the small group as both the context and means for social development of individuals and as a vehicle for generalist practice. It includes discussion of the individual as a member of a variety of groups, including the family.
This course focuses primarily on the application of basic generalist social work skills that demonstrate an understanding and application of the continuum of social work practice in the helping relationship.
This practice course examines the middle and ending phases of the helping process and related skills
This second course in social welfare policy builds on S251 by exploring in depth the current social welfare delivery system through policy analysis using a variety of frameworks and developing policy practice skills. The course also develops beginning policy practice skills so that students will know how to work toward social change congruent with social work ethics and the profession’s commitment to social and economic justice.
The general goal of this basic social science research methods course is to introduce and develop skills needed to conceptualize a problem, make use of available literature, design a research strategy, evaluate, organize, and integrate relevant data (both existing and new), derive useful solutions based on knowledge, and communicate those solutions to clients and colleagues.
This introductory statistics course is designed for students who wish to master some very important tools used by contemporary social work practitioners to better understand the world of practice. The primary purpose of the course is to enable students to gain an understanding of the basic principles that guide statistical reasoning, especially as they relate to making informed decisions about the quantitative aspects of their practice.
In-depth study of a special field of social work practice, such as family and child welfare, health care, mental health.
This international service learning course targets students interested in developing an in-depth understanding of community practice in regions affected by war. Specifically, IU School of Social Work faculty in collaboration with community development actors from the City of Osijek, Croatia, and University of Zagreb, Department of Social Work will provide an intensive service-learning experience that links war torn community service providers with the IUSSW and University of Zagreb faculty and students.
This international service-learning experience will provide students with an opportunity to learn and work with local community social reconstruction actors as well as international social development personnel involved in community practice initiatives and community reconstruction through schools. As our communities are increasingly affected by human-made disasters, children, families, and especially marginalized groups are becoming more susceptible to global social problems. Thus, it is crucial for social work students to understand global issues and their implications for local communities, whether aboard or at home, and to work with community partners to design appropriate interventions.
This course provides the theoretical and conceptual foundation for understanding organizational functioning and behavior, and introduces the knowledge and skills necessary for generalist social work practice and leadership within an organizational context.
This course provides the theoretical foundation for community functioning and behavior and the knowledge and skills of community interventions designed to mitigate social, political and economic injustice and bring social change.
This course focuses the student upon a specific field of social work practice in increased depth, provides further opportunity for synthesis of student learning from previous courses, and seeks to integrate social welfare policies and policy analysis with social work practice. Students will be expected to integrate the theoretical content from previous coursework and the content presented in this course with opportunities for practical application. The course emphasizes the value base of social work practice and its commitment to social and economic justice as students identify and analyze ethical dilemmas found in generalist practice. Students will be expected to explore the recent literature to build knowledge for the demonstration of research-informed practice in a specific area. This course is one of multiple choices that BSW Senior level students (Pre-requisites are completion of all 300 level Social Work courses) have to focus their learning in a specific area/method of practice.
Social work practice with individuals diagnosed with severe mental illnesses can be both challenging and rewarding. Social workers provide the majority of case management services to people with severe and persistent mental illness and therefore, must be well educated in mental health policy, economical challenges, recovery, and various interventions. In understanding the complexity of severe mental illnesses and the recovery process, an examination of societal and personal attitudes are essential. This population is a highly stigmatized group and social workers must examine beliefs and attitudes to ensure ethical practice. There has been a paradigm shift in both the etiology and outcomes of individuals experiencing severe mental illness; current research demonstrates that over time, individuals with severe mental illness show remarkable improvement. These changes have led to a shift in mental health practices and services provided. An understanding of the history of mental health, managed care systems, economic funding, and ways that research informs practice is paramount for those interested in working with this population. This course is designed to include but not be limited to the following: Historical perspectives, theoretical constructs, practical interventions, and the impact of evidence based practice related to mental health. Special consideration will be given to oppressed populations within the people experiencing severe mental illness such as: Gays and lesbians, people of color, older adults, women, adolescents/children, and low socio-economic status.
This course focuses the student upon a specific field of social work practice in increased depth, provides further opportunity for synthesis of student learning from previous courses, and seeks to integrate social welfare policies and policy analysis with social work practice. Students will be expected to integrate the theoretical content from previous coursework and the content presented in this course with opportunities for practical application. the course emphasizes the value base of social work practice and its commitment to social and economic justice as students identify and analyze ethical dilemmas found in generalist practice.
This course focuses the student upon a specific field of social work practice in increased depth, provides further opportunity for synthesis of student learning from previous courses, and seeks to integrate social welfare policies and policy analysis with social work practice. Students will be expected to integrate the theoretical content from previous coursework and the content presented in this course with opportunities for practical application. The course emphasizes the value base of social work practice and its commitment to social and economic justice as students identify and analyze ethical dilemmas found in generalist practice. Students will be expected to explore the recent literature to build knowledge for the demonstration of research-informed practice in a specific area.
Addresses practice and policy issues in specific fields of practice.
This course focuses the student upon a specific field of social work practice in increased depth, provides further opportunity for synthesis of student learning from previous courses, and seeks to integrate social welfare policies and policy analysis with social work practice. Case management exists within the broad area of social welfare and social services, and requires knowledge about the human condition, problems in living, the delivery of human services, and the institutions that comprise today’s social welfare system.
This course focuses the student upon a specific field of social work practice in increased depth, provides further opportunity for synthesis of student learning from previous courses, and seeks to integrate social welfare policies and policy analysis with social work practice. Students will be expected to integrate the theoretical content from previous coursework and the content presented in this course with opportunities for practical application. The course emphasizes the value base of social work practice and its commitment to social and economic justice as students identify and analyze ethical dilemmas found in generalist practice. Students will be expected to explore the recent literature to build knowledge for the demonstration of research-informed practice in a specific area.
This course focuses the student upon a specific field of social work practice in increased depth, provides further opportunity for synthesis of student learning from previous courses, and seeks to integrate social welfare policies and policy analysis with social work practice. Students will be expected to integrate the theoretical content from previous coursework and the content presented in this course with opportunities for practical application. The course emphasizes the value base of social work practice and its commitment to social and economic justice as students identify and analyze ethical dilemmas found in generalist practice.
This course focuses the student upon a specific field of social work practice in increased depth, provides further opportunity for synthesis of student learning from previous courses, and seeks to integrate social welfare policies and policy analysis with social work practice. Students will be expected to integrate the theoretical content from previous coursework and the content presented in this course with opportunities for practical application. The course emphasizes the value base of social work practice and its commitment to social and economic justice as students identify and analyze ethical dilemmas in generalist practice.
This course focuses the student upon a specific field of social work practice in increased depth, provides further opportunity for synthesis of student learning from previous courses, and seeks to integrate social welfare policies and policy analysis with social work practice. Students will be expected to integrate the theoretical content from previous coursework and the content presented in this course with opportunities for practical application. The course emphasizes the value base of social work practice and its commitment to social and economic justice as students identify and analyze ethical dilemmas found in generalist practice. Students will be expected to explore the recent literature to build knowledge for the demonstration of research-informed practice in a specific area.
This course focuses the student upon a specific field of social work practice in increased depth, provides further opportunity for synthesis of student learning from previous courses, and seeks to integrate social welfare policies and policy analysis with social work practice. Students will be expected to integrate the theoretical content from previous coursework and the content presented in this course with opportunities for practical application. The course emphasizes the value base of social work practice and its commitment to social and economic justice as students identify and analyze ethical dilemmas found in generalist practice.
This course prepares BSW/MSW students to successfully complete scholarly writing tasks. Topics addressed include expectations and standards for scholarly writing, conducting searches of professional literature, using effective paraphrasing and summarization skills, writing logically and coherently, and appropriately citing references adhering to APA format. The course is intended to support students’ efforts on writing tasks assigned in future courses.
This course provides students with the knowledge and skills needed to evaluate their own practice and the effectiveness of social service programs within which they work, as well as to become critical consumers of the professional literature to guide their practice.
Field education provides the opportunity for social work students to demonstrate competency in practice, integrating knowledge, values and skills gained in the professional education curriculum. The first practicum experience in the Bachelor of Social Work program allows the student to develop and demonstrate beginning practice competency, laying the foundation for the final field experience (SWK-S 482). Students spend 15 hours per week for the 16-week semester in the agency and receive weekly supervision from an approved agency-based field instructor.
This course is the continuation of SWK-S 481 agency-based field experience which provides opportunities for students to demonstrate the practice behaviors outlined in the competencies defined by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) in preparation for professional practice at the BSW level. The SWK-S 482 practicum placement continues at the same agency as arranged for SWK-S 481 with the student increasing the practicum time to 20 hours per week for the 16-week semester, with continued weekly supervision from an approved agency-based field instructor.
Intensive study of specific areas relative to social work profession and practice.
This foundation research course assists students in developing the knowledge, skills, and values necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of social work practice. Emphasis is placed upon knowledge of qualitative and quantitative designs, methods, and techniques that inform students of best practices in social work. Students will recognize the impact of ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation and gender identity on the research process and be able to critically review published studies with attention to bias in research.
This course examines the processes that influence the development of social policy and social services. Included are legislative and political processes, models of policy analysis, service delivery and policy implementation. Effects of these on people are considered from global, political, economic and social policy perspectives.
This course is developed around the general proposition that social workers utilize knowledge and skills to carry out roles and functions critical for practice. Such knowledge and skills include the application of social policy analysis, the legislative process, the role and impact of politics and political choice on the quality of life of people, and the effect of economic-social policy decision and judicial actions on social services. In addition, the course examines the variability of the common and uncommon attributes of service delivery systems.
The purpose of this course is to provide learners with the knowledge and understanding of the history and mission of the social work profession, the variety of possible social work fields of practice, the legal regulations of the profession, the value base and ethical frameworks that influence decision-making, the application of critical thinking, the development of self-awareness and the practice of self-care for social work practice. This is inclusive of skills and conduct for professional practice.
This course will introduce MSW students to human rights and social justice perspectives in order to examine the shifting landscape of diversity, oppression, power, and privilege. The fundamental goal of the course is for students to develop critical consciousness in order to gain competencies to address diversity, privilege and oppression in social work practice. The importance of power and the dynamics of domination and subordination in multiple manifestations of oppression, particularly among historically oppressed groups, will be explored. An understanding of these concepts integrated with an understanding of one’s self within these systems is essential for social work practice.
This course focuses on reciprocal relationships between human behavior and the social environment with selected theoretical perspectives and their associated empirically-based theories, including strengths/empowerment, ecological/systems, behavioral, critical, and developmental perspectives and theories. Learners will use micro interviewing skills to apply these perspectives and theories throughout the planned change process to service diverse client needs and experiences. The integration of theory and practice through the planned change process will be guided by the biopsychosocial and spiritual perspective.
This course provides students with knowledge, values and cognitive skills focused on social work practice at organizational, community and societal levels. Social work interventions at these levels include involvement of relevant stakeholders in the development and/or modifications of organizational, community and societal policies, programs and practices.
Recognizing the social, political, legal, and ethical implications of assessment, students enrolled in this course critically examine various conceptual frameworks and apply bio-psychosocial and strengths perspectives to understand its multidimensional aspects. Students learn to conduct sophisticated mental status and lethality risk interviews, engage in strengths and assets discovery, and apply the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association and other classification schemes in formulating assessment hypotheses. They gain an understanding of the application of several relevant assessment instruments and learn to evaluate their relevance for service to at-risk populations, including persons affected by mental health and addictions issues. Students learn to collaborate with a diverse range of consumers and other professionals in developing meaningful assessments upon which to plan goals, intervention strategies, and means for evaluation.
This course builds on Generalist Theory & Practice and focuses on developing further knowledge of clinical practice theory and its application to prepare students for competent social work practice with individuals and groups. A transtheoretical model of change is emphasized, and motivational interviewing methods and interventions are the focus for practice. Underlying theory, including behaviorism and person-centered therapy, are introduced to provide a foundation for the skills necessary for implementation of motivational interviewing techniques. Solution focused brief therapy (SFBT) is also introduced to students, which stresses a strengths based approach to practice and client empowerment. SFBT has roots in cognitive theory and this is reviewed to strengthen student understanding of both theory and practice skills. Students will be prepared to use intervention skills that can serve diverse populations and gain an understanding of how theory influences interventions with individuals and groups.
This course focuses on developing further knowledge of macro theory and practice in both a community and global context.
The MSW Social Work Practicum I is an educationally-directed practice experience under the direct supervision of an approved agency field instructor. The practicum occurs as a culmination of the Intermediate curriculum, providing opportunities for the application and integration of classroom learning (theories, concepts and practice principles) in a practice setting. The practicum fosters the development of core competencies in generalist social work practice with emphasis on acquiring graduate-level, strengths-based interpersonal skills for work at all systems levels.
This seminar introduces students to integrated healthcare practice with youth and families. Designed to be transdisciplinary, the course will incorporate students from various Departments and Schools such as social work, medicine, clinical psychology, nursing, mental health counseling, and education. Areas of foci include principles, theories and models of integrated care; applicable biomedical terminology; youth and familial developmental models; biopsychosocial-based clinical assessment of disorders of childhood and adolescence; biopsychosocial determinants of health among youth; the impact of familial systems on treatment for youth; treatment of common medical and psychosocial concerns among youth; use of psychopharmacology with youth; ethical considerations for treatment of adolescents and emerging adults; substance use and misuse among youth; and youth sexual and reproductive health. Students will gain knowledge and skills necessary to conduct direct practice within an integrated care environment, implement biopsychosocial screenings within a primary care setting, provide behavioral/emotional health consultation, and conduct integrated care-based practice evaluation.
Building upon the student’s foundation of general social work ethics knowledge, this course seeks to integrate various models and frameworks into practice at micro, mezzo and macro settings. Emphasis will be placed on the need for a core framework to minimize extraneous impacts on the ethical decision making process, while understanding that frameworks tend to have inherent internal conflicts. A detailed self-analysis process, focused on personal moral development and expression, will be a focus of the course to ensure a full understanding of the self as it applies to personal ethical conflicts and those perceived in systems and others. The study of ethical frameworks and self will intersect as students are guided toward an understanding of how both individual and systemic influences must be considered in maintained ethical practice. Consideration will then be given to applying this knowledge in ethically monitoring, engaging and correcting systems and behaviors in practice settings.
Due to the legal, familial, and other societal consequences related to the many different types of trauma, including military combat, accidents, life-threatening events, interpersonal violence, sexual assault, natural disasters, secondary trauma, adverse childhood experiences, and childhood physical and sexual abuse, social workers need to be equipped to assess and intervene with clients exposed to trauma. Moreover, social workers need to be prepared to deliver appropriate trauma responsive care that addresses both client and referral source needs. Trauma assessment methods, research on prevalence, policy issues, comorbid psychological and medical diagnoses, and social correlates will be examined. Various long-term impacts will be viewed as posttraumatic adaptation, and students will distinguish between the adaptive and pathological accommodations survivors have been required to make recognizing strengths in survival.
This course assists graduate social work students in assessing and intervening in the impact of trauma on individuals and within families while attending to strengths and resilience. The course will examine a range of traumatic experiences and their differential impact trauma survivors, families and society. Graduate social work students build upon assessment and intervention knowledge gained in their foundation and concentration courses to engage, assess, intervene, and evaluate outcomes associated with trauma exposed clients. The course will provide students with opportunities to demonstrate knowledge and skills regarding assessment and intervention with clients exposed to trauma.
In this course, the basic structure and operation of the legal systems in the U.S. and in Indiana are outlined as well as the interface between social work and the law. In this course, students deepen their understanding of the legal aspects of social work in a variety of areas such as criminal law, education, family law, domestic violence, child welfare, healthcare, and other laws that coincide with the profession of social work. In order to successfully begin ameliorating social inequities, social workers must use knowledge of law and social work to be effective advocates.
The selection, assessment, and adaptation for social work of concepts, propositions and theories from the social psychological, and biological sciences.
Due to legal, familial, and other societal consequences of mental illness and addiction, social workers need to be equipped to address co-occurring disorders with clients who are referred by the court system and who may not necessarily have internal motivation for change. Moreover, social workers need to be prepared to deliver appropriate interventions that address both client and referral source needs to, ultimately, improve client functioning and well-being. Social workers need to fulfill the aforementioned goals while adhering to social work values and ethics. Both actual and potential complexities associated with effectively working with court-ordered clients presenting with a range of psychosocial problems, addressing the needs of referral sources, and managing associated ethical dilemmas necessitate a formal graduate social work course to address the unique needs of court-ordered clients.
This course assists graduate social work students in working with court-ordered clients and the referral source to address addiction, mental illness, domestic violence, anger management, and sexual aggression issues in accordance with the reasons for client referral to treatment. Graduate social work students build upon assessment and intervention knowledge gained in their foundation and concentration courses to engage, assess, intervene, and evaluate outcomes associated with court-ordered clients. The course will provide students with opportunities to demonstrate knowledge and skills regarding assessment of motivation to change and the tailoring of appropriate interventions for a particular stage of change. Students will apply motivational interviewing skills and cognitive-behavioral interventions to address resistance and change, respectively. The course will aid social work students in building client self-efficacy and internal locus of control beyond simply fulfilling court mandates.
This course is designed to build individual and family practice skills for school social work with children, adolescents, and families, with an emphasis on the impact of traumatic life events, including poverty, homelessness, child physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and/or family violence. Students will learn how to engage with community partners and various child-serving systems to meet the needs of children, adolescents, and families. A primary focus of the course will be acquiring knowledge and skills for culturally responsive practice, including assessment, interviewing, and engagement with children, adolescents and families in a school-based context.
This advanced level practice course is designed to provide students with an overview of contemporary social work practice in school settings. Specific topical areas include the historical and contemporary contexts of social work service in school settings, legal mandates for social work practice in schools, social policies and trends in education affecting school settings and social work practice in schools, preventive and intervention methods and roles applicable to diverse populations in school settings, research issues and practice effectiveness, and multiculturalism and diversity issues in social work practice in schools.
The purpose of this course is to provide intensive study of a specific service delivery system and to provide an opportunity for synthesis and application of learning and practice of policy in that system. The content of the course will build on the values of the profession and focus on the role of the “social policy practitioner” in assisting individuals in the maintenance or attainment of optimal health, social and economic justice, and social well-being. This course examines the relationship of social work values and ethics to social policies and service delivery systems especially as they relate to oppressed populations and discrimination. Opportunities for students will be encouraged for direct involvement in the political and organizational processes used to influence policy and delivery systems.
The purpose of this course is to provide intensive study of a specific service delivery system and to provide an opportunity for synthesis and application of learning and practice of policy in that system. The content of the course will build on the values of the profession and focus on the role of the “social policy practitioner” in assisting individuals in the maintenance or attainment of optimal health, social and economic justice, and social well-being. This course examines the relationship of social work values and ethics to social policies and service delivery systems especially as they relate to oppressed populations and discrimination. Opportunities for students will be encouraged for direct involvement in the political and organizational processes used to influence policy and delivery systems.
The purpose of this course is to provide intensive study of a specific service delivery system and to provide an opportunity for synthesis and application of learning and practice of policy in that system. The content of the course will build on the values of the profession and focus on the role of the “social policy practitioner” in assisting individuals in the maintenance or attainment of optimal health, social and economic justice, and social well-being. This course examines the relationship of social work values and ethics to social policies and service delivery systems especially as they relate to oppressed populations and discrimination. Opportunities for students will be encouraged for direct involvement in the political and organizational processes used to influence policy and delivery systems.
The purpose of this course is to provide intensive study of a specific service delivery system and to provide an opportunity for synthesis and application of learning and practice of policy in that system. The content of the course will build on the values of the profession and focus on the role of the “social policy practitioner” in assisting individuals in the maintenance or attainment of optimal health, social and economic justice, and social well-being. This course examines the relationship of social work values and ethics to social policies and service delivery systems especially as they relate to oppressed populations and discrimination. Opportunities for students will be encouraged for direct involvement in the political and organizational processes used to influence policy and delivery systems.
The purpose of this course is to provide intensive study of a specific service delivery system and to provide an opportunity for synthesis and application of learning and practice of policy in that system. The content of the course will build on the values of the profession and focus on the role of the “social policy practitioner” in assisting individuals in the maintenance or attainment of optimal health, social and economic justice, and social well-being. This course examines the relationship of social work values and ethics to social policies and service delivery systems especially as they relate to oppressed populations and discrimination. Opportunities for students will be encouraged for direct involvement in the political and organizational processes used to influence policy and delivery systems.
The purpose of this course is to provide intensive study of a specific service delivery system and to provide an opportunity for synthesis and application of learning and practice of policy in that system. The content of the course will build on the values of the profession and focus on the role of the “social policy practitioner” in assisting individuals in the maintenance or attainment of optimal health, social and economic justice, and social well-being. This course examines the relationship of social work values and ethics to social policies and service delivery systems especially as they relate to oppressed populations and discrimination. Opportunities for students will be encouraged for direct involvement in the political and organizational processes used to influence policy and delivery systems.
This course is designed to develop and broaden student knowledge and skill in direct practice with children and adolescents. Social work practice will be examined within the context of meta-frameworks that include developmental stages/tasks, sexual development and orientation, gender issues, family context, culture, larger environmental systems, discrimination/oppression, and legal rights and responsibilities. Emphasis will be placed on practice methods including assessment, interviewing, comparative treatment models, and practice with special populations.
This course examines a number of single-system designs that can be used to evaluate practice or practice interventions with clients. The designs, which are n = 1 types of studies, can be used with any size system, e.g., individuals, couples, families, groups, or organizational (agency) units. Students in this course will learn a variety of single-system designs, the descriptive statistics that are used with such designs, graphing and plotting data, content on binomial and normal distributions, and tests of hypotheses with single-system designs. In addition, important issues for this course are the values and ethics that relate to the design selection, baseline and withdrawal phases, and appropriate analyses and reports of results.
This course furthers the knowledge, skills, and values students develop in the foundation-year research course. Students will apply their knowledge and skills in research to evaluate practice or program effectiveness in their concentrations, using research methods that are sensitive to consumers’ needs and clients’ race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and additional aspects important to effective and ethical research.
This course examines a number of single-system designs that can be used to evaluate practice or practice interventions with clients. The designs, which are n = 1 types of studies, can be used with any size system, e.g., individuals, couples, families, groups, or organizational (agency) units. Students in this course will learn a variety of single-system designs, the descriptive statistics that are used with such designs, graphing and plotting data, content on binomial and normal distributions, and tests of hypotheses with single-system designs. In addition, important issues for this course are the values and ethics that relate to the design selection, baseline and withdrawal phases, and appropriate analyses and reports of results.
This course furthers the knowledge, skills, and values students develop in the foundation-year research course. Students will apply their knowledge and skills in research to evaluate practice or program effectiveness in their concentrations, using research methods that are sensitive to consumers’ needs and clients’ race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and additional aspects important to effective and ethical research.
This course is designed to build individual and group practice skills for work with children and families impacted by child physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect and/or family violence. Emphasis will be placed on practice skills with children. Students will practice assessment and intervention skills guided by theories of child development, attachment and bonding, grief, and trauma. The goals of safety, permanency and well-being will be emphasized when assessing risk and trauma and intervening within the child welfare and school systems. Students will explore cultural differences and issues impacting particular oppressed and underserved populations.
This course will focus on the experiences of children and families in the child welfare system. Content will include interventions with families through all stages of change including preparation for change, separation and loss, the changed family system, reintegration as children transition into a family, and adolescents transitioning into independent living. Content will include the impact on families when the natural cycle of family development is disrupted. Special consideration will be given to various family types including adoptive, foster care, kinship, extended, single parent, multi-generational, and homosexual families. Practice content will emphasize strengths based and family-centered approaches and include knowledge and skill development to help children and families work through their family and personal crisis and grief in a timely manner to achieve permanency for children in safe and nurturing environments within 12 months after separation.
This course will examine the development of and build skills for the implementation of a wide range of prevention and intervention strategies to support child well-being provided at the community level. Special attention will be given to the philosophy of empowerment-oriented and client-driven service models. This course will provide content to build skills in developing and implementing mutual aid and self-help groups to support and educate children and families on issues such as parenting, domestic violence, grief/loss, conflict mediation and child abuse issues. The course will explore the community as a resource and discuss strategies of collaboration and advocacy services for families and children to prevent out-of-home placement or involvement in other formal child protection/juvenile justice services, such as models of community-building, youth development and family group conferencing/restorative justice. The course also provides frameworks for identifying and analyzing best practices in group and community-based services for children and families.
This course is designed to teach strategies and skills for working with families impacted by the challenges of addictions, domestic violence and mental illness. Building upon knowledge of assessment and intervention with diagnosed mental illnesses, students will analyze the relationships between and among the social problems of addictions, mental illness and domestic violence in relation to socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical and mental ability, and other socio-environmental factors of vulnerability. The class will provide students with the opportunities to describe and demonstrate a theoretical understanding of both the dynamics of being an involuntary client and the legal and ethical dilemmas that abound for social work practitioners working with them. The class will provide students with the opportunities to describe and analyze power differentials between the client and worker, as well as, devise, assess and implement strategies to minimize the behaviors that have been identified as “resistance”. The class will provide students with the opportunities to demonstrate knowledge, skills, judgment, sensitivity, and self-awareness necessary to resolve the challenges of social work practice with involuntary populations when utilizing strengths-based, empowerment and eco-systems perspectives.
651 (Practicum II) and 652 (Practicum III) together provide an in-depth advanced practicum experience for MSW students in a designated concentration. Students complete both of these practicum courses in the same community agency/organization under practice supervision of an approved agency field instructor and academic guidance of a faculty field liaison.
Practicum II and III build upon the more generalist-focused Intermediate Practicum I and deepen the integration and application of social work knowledge, values, and skills for advanced practice. Students engage in these advanced practicum courses while enrolled in the required concentration courses. Students spend a minimum of 640 hours in a setting that provides services and allows students an opportunity to engage in experiences that support mastery of all ten core competencies as operationalized by advanced practice behaviors.
651 (Practicum II) and 652 (Practicum III) together provide an in-depth advanced practicum experience for MSW students in a designated concentration. Students complete both of these practicum courses in the same community agency/organization under practice supervision of an approved agency field instructor and academic guidance of a faculty field liaison.
Practicum II and III build upon the more generalist-focused Intermediate Practicum I and deepen the integration and application of social work knowledge, values, and skills for advanced practice. Students engage in these advanced practicum courses while enrolled in the required concentration courses. Students spend a minimum of 640 hours in a setting that provides services and allows students an opportunity to engage in experiences that support mastery of all ten core competencies as operationalized by advanced practice behaviors.
This course addresses administrative, management, leadership, and supervisory skills necessary for leadership practice. Included are staff hiring, supervision, evaluation, and termination; working with boards and volunteers, leadership styles, strategic planning, and current best practices in administration.
This course focuses on knowledge and skills essential for developing core skills in fiscal management (which will include issues of budgeting, understanding balance sheets, audits, and theories of accounting) and resource development (including fund raising, grant writing and personnel policies) for social work leaders.
This course focuses on knowledge and skills essential for understanding, analyzing, and application in organizations, communities and political arenas. Such knowledge and skills include, but are not limited to: organizational theories, structures, and processes; examination and application of rural, urban and virtual community models, themes and practices; and, understand and involvement in political, social action and social change interventions and empowerment practices.
This course focuses on knowledge and skills essential for understanding, applying, and analyzing alternative, transformational models of program, organizational, and community planning. It is designed to enable students to achieve advanced mastery of the models, skills, and techniques of program planning. There is particular emphasis on inclusive, collaborative planning models that foster empowerment of diverse stakeholders in the planning processes.
The course transcends a focus on the basic technology of program development. It is centered upon applying, analyzing, and evaluating the technology of designing transformational planning as a powerful vehicle for organizational, community, and social change. The methods, roles, functions, and values associated with this course emphasize models, themes, and practices that promote cultural competency, advocacy, ethics, and social justice. The students will master knowledge and skills including, but not limited to: creating a social work program grounded in evidence based practices; applying advanced proposal writing skills; identifying funding and other resources; and, analyzing philanthropic trends.
This course provides an overview of the social service delivery system for military personnel, veterans and their families (MVF). The course offers an overview of the social context and diversity dynamics of the military as a closed society. The course describes the unique cultures of the military, wounded warriors, and veterans. The course contrasts the structures, stressors, and resilience of military and veteran families. The course outlines the different social service delivery systems within the military, their missions, and ethical challenges when working within this setting. Combat environments, signature injuries, and treatment strategies for combat veterans are reviewed. The course examines the different roles and competencies of military social workers and how to best navigate this field of practice. Strengths, resilience, and coping skills of military personnel, veterans and their families will be highlighted.
This course provides an overview of telebehavioral health practice delivery and its role in the field of social work. The course outlines various desktop computing and mobile technologies that are used to mediate social work practice activities. Populations that are currently receiving telebehavioral health services and the types of services being delivered will be reviewed, as well as the strengths and limitations of these services. In addition to a focus on individual and group-based services, examination will include how and why telebehavioral health develops within organizations and how organizations can evaluate the effectiveness of the telebehavioral health services being provided.
Use of technology to deliver social work practice activities poses a range of ethical, legal, privacy and other risk-management issues. The course will examine how social workers can respond to these issues to protect their clients and practice ethically. This will include the production of a practice model that includes a plan for managing privacy, information security and mediating social presence through technology in telebehavioral health practice.
This course is a continuation of the Foundations of Telebehavioral Health in Social Work Practice course and focuses on telebehavioral health practice with individuals. It addresses identifying a client population, client issues, and best practice online mediums for identified client populations. Students in this course will develop online assessments and evaluation measurements for individuals. Students will create an emergency plan and develop information and referral resources. Students will also develop telebehavioral health policies that are necessary for telebehavioral health practice. Students will evaluate and analyze secure, HIPAA-compliant video conferencing platforms used in telebehavioral health practice. Students will evaluate third party reimbursement and payment policies and procedures for telebehavioral health services. Additionally, students will examine the importance of maintaining ongoing consultation and supervision for telebehavioral health practice.
Using technology to provide telebehavioral health services to individuals requires comfortability with the online medium used. Accordingly, this course includes role play opportunities using different online mediums. This will also include process recordings, evaluation of recorded sessions, and completion of treatment plan and progress notes.
This course follows the Foundations of Telebehavioral Health in Social Work Practice with a focus on telebehavioral health services delivery to groups. Asynchronous and synchronous modes of delivery are analyzed to evaluate their uses with a range of client system groups and mental health issues. Like telehealth services delivery to individuals, the need for telehealth services delivery to groups is partially in response to the problem of services scarcity in the United States, particularly, due to limited physical access. Rural populations experience the greatest scarcity of accessible mental health resources, however, meeting these needs through telehealth delivery contains risks and drawbacks.
Students will analyze best practices and policies for technology-mediated group work to address these risks. And, because groups are often used to complement primary treatments for purposes of providing informational and emotional support, students will develop a practice model for delivery to a population with whom they work or plan to work. Additionally, students will evaluate best practices for engagement, devise assessment protocols, and determine how to facilitate interventions that develop mutual aid in online groups, as well as synergize individual and group components of practice.
Students enrolled in this course examine a wide range of community-based services provided for people with severe mental illness and/or severe addiction problems. Special attention is given to strength-based, client-driven, and evidence-based practice models. Content includes community-based services in areas of case management, employment, housing, illness management, family, dual disorder treatment, and consumer self-help. Students also examine a variety of issues involved in the provision of community-based services such as ethical and legal issues, quality and continuity of care, cultural competency, organizational and financial factors, and other relevant policy and practice issues.
Students enrolled in this course develop knowledge, values and ethics, skills, and judgment necessary for competent application of selected evidence-based, best practice approaches for service for children, youth, adults, and families affected by mental health and addictions issues. Students explore topics such as risk, resilience, recovery, and relapse-prevention; and consider implications of current social and policy factors affecting service delivery to persons affected by mental health and addictions issues. Students learn to discover, analyze, synthesize, and evaluate evidence of practice effectiveness and apply that knowledge in communication, strengths discovery and assessment, hypothesis formation, contracting, intervention and prevention planning, service delivery, and evaluation. Students develop professional understanding and expertise in the application of at least one evidence-based approach for service to individuals and families affected by at least one specific mental health or addictions issues.
The purpose of this course is to provide learners with knowledge and skills relevant to various aspects of social work practice in prevention, intervention, and treatment of selected addictions. Students draw upon previous and concurrent learning experiences and integrate values, knowledge, and skills acquired in other social work courses with the values, knowledge, and skills characteristic of addictions practice. The course assists students to develop a multidimensional understanding of prevention, intervention, and treatment needs of diverse populations and associated social work practice principles, methods, and skills. Students explore the relationships between and among addiction and socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, culture, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical and mental ability, and other socio-environmental factors of vulnerability. Consistent with strengths and ecosystems perspectives, students consider the impact of social environments, physical settings, community contexts, and political realities that support or inhibit the emergence of addiction problems.
Students enrolled in this course develop professional knowledge and skill for group work services to and for persons affected by mental health and addictions issues. The phases of group development and intervention during the various group work stages provide a conceptual framework for the course experience. Students learn to serve children, youth, adults and families in groups that are therapeutic, growth producing and life enhancing. Students examine a number of theoretical perspectives including cognitive behavioral, communications, behavioral, and interpersonal approaches.
The purpose of this course is to provide learners with knowledge and skills relevant to interprofessional approaches to the treatment of substance use and co-occurring psychiatric disorders. The course includes prevention, intervention, and treatments of these disorders with diverse populations across the life span. Students draw upon previous and concurrent learning experiences and integrate values, knowledge, and skills relevant to their professional standards of practice. Consistent with strengths and ecosystems perspectives, students consider the impact of social environments, physical settings, community contexts, and political realities that influence the emergence of substance use and co-occurring disorders.
An opportunity to engage in a self-directed study of an area related to the school's curriculum in which no formal course is available.
This course will focus upon the role of the social worker in health care settings. Issues such as team building, professional identity, patient advocacy, ethics and managed care will be addressed. Also, the impact of healthcare payment sources and healthcare choices for patients will be explored.
This course examines the impact of illness from the medical, psychosocial and environmental perspectives. Areas, such as coping with chronic illness, caregiver stress, grieving and loss, medical ethics and violence as a healthcare issue are examined. The needs of at-risk populations (i.e., children, survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, frail elderly, individuals living with HIV/AIDS, etc.) are also examined.
The purpose of this course is to provide health concentration students with increased depth of knowledge in the area of practice with older adults in healthcare areas, such as acute care hospitals, rehabilitation facilities, adult day care and long-term care facilities. Effective social work practice with older adults relies on knowledge and application of evidence-based theories, assessments and interventions with this population.
This is an issue-oriented social work course on the policy and practice issues in loss, grief, death, and dying across the life span for diverse populations. The major educational goal is to evaluate and understand the many problems and key resources relevant to social work practice with persons encountering grief, loss, death and bereavement in the context of health care settings. Students will attain knowledge, values and skills to meet the demands for entry level practice with clients (and their families) encountering chronic or terminal illness.
Students will learn selected parametric and non-parametric statistics to examine research problems. Included in the learning process are hand computations of statistics development of skills in using a comprehensive computer statistics package, and selection of statistical techniques based on levels of measurement and analyses of the assumptions of statistics.
This course examines the nature and sources of social work knowledge and considers a range of epistemological issues involved in the selection, development, evaluation and use of knowledge for social work.
This course focuses on the development and refinement of scholarship skills that are the foundation for formulating, carrying on and disseminating independent research including critical analysis of existing research, reading, and responding to scholarly writing, compiling, and writing in-depth literature reviews using library and internet sources, and formulating research questions.
This supervised field internship provides practical experience in conducting research relevant to social work practice. Students participate in a new or ongoing, faculty supervised research project involving the design and implementation of a study, including the collection and analysis of data, and the development of appropriate research reports. Internship may be registered for up to three times.
Quantitative Methods I is designed to develop knowledge and skills in research designs and methods and address problems encountered in behavioral and social research. Students will critically evaluate quantitative research and ethics of scientific inquiry, develop a theoretically-motivated research question, and design a data collection strategy appropriate for that question.
This course reviews community engaged participatory research (CEPR) approaches and models of implementation science and evaluation in order to help researchers to create and sustain evidence-based programs and practices in collaboration with agencies and communities. Major topic areas include theoretical foundations, models, ethics, and development of a CEPR compliant project.
This course provides students with an opportunity to engage in focused study of a substantive area of social work practice directly related to the student's identified are of theoretical and research interest. It is completed with the approval and under the guidance of a member of the Ph.D. faculty.
This course acquaints incoming doctoral students with campus resources for graduate students and with the expectations for doctoral education, including the policies, procedures, and academic standards of the Graduate School and the School of Social Work.
This course is intended to support PhD students as they finish up doctoral coursework and prepare for their qualifying papers, dissertation, and subsequent professional career.