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CROSS-SEQUENCE COURSES

190. Group Theory and Practice (PRAC/HBSE)
This course introduces students to the history of social group work and focuses on applying the values, skills, and knowledge of the social work profession to a variety of groups. Theoretical and practical principles of group work are introduced to enhance understanding and use of group as a complex system of roles and interrelationships. Students learn how to construct task and treatment groups and how to mobilize the resources of existing groups. Primary focus is given to those dynamics which are common to all groups, and students will begin to explore how issues of difference (gender, race, sexual orientation, age, culture, class, ability, religion) affect group processes. Required course first summer. Two quarter-hours.

191. Agency and Community Practice (PRAC/SWPS/HBSE)
This course will introduce students to the macro-component for community-based practice. It will introduce students to selected concepts from organizational theory that help them understand and bring about change in human service organizations. It will also introduce students to the processes of community development, organizing, planning, empowerment, and change -- to bring about change at the community level. It will provide conceptual frameworks that support ways that clinical social workers can change organizations and communities. Finally, it will prepare students for and provide knowledge, skills and tools to engage in practice aimed at promoting social and economic justice. Reqired course taken in the second term of the first summer. Two quarter-hours.

318. Managing Ethnicities: A Socio Legal History of Immigration to the U.S. (SWPS/PRAC)
This course is designed to prepare students for direct practice with immigrants and refugees. Because of the growing trends of relocation and increasing numbers of immigrants, refugees and asylees, due to political, economic, familial and personal reasons, one in five clients of social workers is likely to be foreign-born or have a foreign-born parent. Therefore, social workers are required to be knowledgeable about immigration-related issues and strategies to address them. The theoretical underpinnings of the course are stress and trauma theories, the ecological approach and the strength perspective. The course discusses the nature of immigration from a global, national and clinical perspective. Building on knowledge acquired in the foundation level courses, it moves on to focus on application of this knowledge to effective strategies to address issues and needs of immigrants. The course is organized in four units: (1) Global and national contexts of immigration; (2) Characteristics of the immigration process; (3) Differential effects of immigration on individual and families along the life cycle, and communities; and (4) Effective practices in serving immigrants. Elective course second or third summer. Two quarter-hours.

320. Collective Trauma: The Impact of Intercommunal Violence on Individuals, Communities, and Cultures (HBSE/PRAC)
This course is designed to introduce students to information, concepts, and controversies critical to understanding the impact of massive violence on individuals and groups of people. Throughout the course understanding the impact of such violence will be coupled with the question of what people, and cultures, need to recover. Widespread violence threatens the constituent elements of individual and community life, especially when the violence is between communitities and targets civilians, as in Rwanda or Bosnia. Each individual caught in such violence has to begin a new life which in some way incorporates the destruction and violation which have occurred, and communities also have to reestablish, or even create, conditions for resuming viable community life. During the course we will consider what enables recovery as we look at mass violence in a number of ways. We will consider the changing nature of warfare, and detail the impact of intercommunal violence (including specific ways women and children are affected). We will consider the role of group identity in the generation of mass violence, and the ways in which violence and the terror it generates affect the subsequent group identities of conflictants (for example, the impact of the 1994 genocide on ethnic identity in Rwanda; the impact of September 11 on the national identities of US citizens). We will look at ongoing impact, through issues such as intergenerational transmission, and group memory of horror. We will look in detail at the controversies surrounding the use by the humanitarian field of concepts such as trauma and PTSD to delineate the effects of mass violence, and consider other frameworks. We will look in depth at some of the ways people and communities get caught in cycles of revenge and violence, and then look at the stages which individuals and communities go through in moving toward peaceful coexistence. We will consider (particularly at the start of the course and again at the end) the impact of working with the issue of mass violence (confronting the brutal facts, working with those involved, etc) upon ourselves as students, workers, and human beings. Elective course taken in the second or third summer. Two quarter-hours.

322 Beyond Combat: Clinical Social Work Theory and Practice Models (PRAC/HBSE)
This elective course draws from research data that explore the effects of deployment and combat stress on the physical and mental health of active duty U.S. service members and their families. Therapy modalities grounded in a synthesis of trauma, attachment, object relations, family and cognitive-behavioral theories include a range of approaches (i.e. individual, couple/family, group and clinical case management). Attention to issues of diversity, ethics and use of “professional self” will be included throughout all clinical case discussions. Clinical issues involve intimate partner violence, intergenerational transmission of legacies of combat trauma, military sexual assault and complex responses of PTSD, other anxiety disorders, depression/suicidality and substance abuse. Managing secondary trauma and the role of transference/countertransference phenomena are central in all discussions. Priority is given to students who have worked with or who anticipate working with soldiers, Marines and their families. Maximum of 15 students. Two quarter hours.

335. Crisis Intervention (HBSE/PRAC)
This elective introduces various clinical social work approaches to crisis intervention that are grounded in a range of theoretical models within social context, i.e., crisis, attachment, object relations; ego psychology; cognitive-behavioral; and multi-systemic. Critical events include: large scale domestic and global crisis; para-suicidal and suicidal behavior; acute psychiatric symptomatology; effects of witnessing homicide and other violence on children/adolescents; effects of witnessing and engaging in combat; domestic violence; catastrophic illness or accident; and violence in the workplace. Students will learn to differentiate between disaster management and crisis intervention. Rapid biopsychosocial assessments will be completed to guide the development of a case-specific treatment plans. Focus is placed on the identified client in the context of his/her family support network. The intersection of social work values and ethics along with diversity and sociocultural themes are considered throughout the course. Clinical case material and videotapes will be used to facilitate classroom dialogue. Elective course taken in the second or third summer. Two quarter-hours.

390. Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Identities: Developmental and Treatment Considerations (PRAC/HBSE)
This course is designed to help students integrate their understanding of developmental issues in the context of lesbian, gay, and bisexual identities and to examine differential diagnostic and treatment issues with this population. Psychodynamic theory and current social/psychological approaches will provide a framework for examination. Normative developmental tasks for lesbians and gay men will be addressed within a context of adolescent and adult development and from a person-environment perspective. Elective course taken in the second or third summer. Two quarter-hours.

397. Race and Ethnicity in Psychodynamic Clinical Practice (PRAC/HBSE)
The course will examine sociocultural dimensions such as ethnicity, race, and class in the development and practice of psychodynamic psychotherapy. As a point of departure, the course will emphasize the student’s sense of racial/ethnic self as a basis for the psychodynamic inquiry. Implications for psychotherapy based on transference and countertransference will be highlighted. Elective course taken in the second or third summer. Two quarter-hours.

590. HIV/AIDS: Practice and Policy Perspectives (PRAC/SWPS)
This course will provide students with an opportunity to understand the history of the epidemic in the U.S., how patterns of incidence and prevalence are changing, and how public policy has evolved. Up-to-date information on transmission, treatments, ethical issues, and prevention strategies will be provided. Personal and professional values, transference and countertransference issues, clinical situations, and the psychosocial issues confronting people infected with and affected by HIV will be explored. Students will develop a framework for thinking about the impact of HIV on society, and will examine the implications of all of the above for clinical practice. Elective course taken in the second or third summer. Two quarter-hours.

591. Clinical Practice in Low-Income Communities (PRAC/SWPS)
This course will examine successful models of clinical practice that have been developed in low-income communities from the 1960s to the present. We will critically consider the usefulness of a range of psychological and social theories and models of practice to the needs of a highly stressed population, as well as the settings in which relevant models of practice are expanding. We will look at the particular rewards and pressures experienced by clinicians working on the "front lines" of social neglect and dysfunction, and at spiritual practices and conditions which sustain us in our work. Elective course taken in the second or third summer. Two quarter-hours.

592. Severely and Persistently Mentally Ill Clients and Their Families: Treatment and Social Policy Perspectives (HBSE/PRSC/SWPS)
This course will address some of the major policy and service delivery issues in the field of mental health that affect the lives of individuals with chronic mental illness and their families. Particular attention will be given to individuals suffering from major mental illnesses, including Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorders, Major Depressive Disorder, and Psychological Trauma. Course readings and case material will also address issues in the treatment of adults dually diagnosed with major mental illnesses and Substance Related Disorders. Advocacy efforts from clients and their families will be discussed. Students' class presentations of their own clinical work with mentally ill adults will provide opportunities for discussing treatment questions and ethical dilemmas that arise in working with these individuals and their families. Elective course taken in the second or third summer. Two quarter-hours.

593. Human Sexuality (HBSE/PRAC)
This course will explore topics in human sexuality. These may include physiology of sexuality, taking a sexual history, sexual orientation, sexual development over the life cycle, and sexual dysfunctions. Students will explore the applications of this knowledge to clinical practice and will also consider their own level of comfort with this material as it relates to the clinical situation. Elective course taken in the second or third summer. Two quarter-hours.

594. Private Troubles and Public Issues: The Social Construction of Assessment (PRAC/HBSE)
This course will provide a framework for analyzing the historical, social, cultural, and political contexts of some psychiatric diagnoses and schema for assessing individual and family dysfunction. It is principally concerned with establishing the usefulness to clinical practitioners of social as well as psychological explanatory theories. In this course we will study three propositions: 1. That hierarchical and oppressive social arrangements (racism, classism, and sexism among others) and problematic social values (excessive individualism) have identifiable impact on contemporary patterns of individual and family distress; 2. That the construction of human problems as principally psychological promotes therapeutic and private interventions at the expense of a balance between social and psychological solutions; and 3. That knowledge about the social construction of assessment schema has a direct impact on the effectiveness of clinical practice. The social and cultural context of psychiatric diagnoses and the impact of managed care and service delivery systems will also be explored. Elective course third summer. Two quarter-hours.

596. Aging: Individual, Family, Community and Policy Perspectives (HBSE/SWPS)
This course examines human behavior and the social environment as well as public policy implications of the aging U.S. population within the context of global trends. Biological, psychological, and social theories of aging are explored. Emphasis is given to the mental and physical health issues specific to the elderly that affect clinical practice. Special attention is paid to public policy implications and clinical approaches to special populations and groups within the aging population, including the old-old, women, racial and ethnic minorities, gays and lesbians, and immigrants. Clinical and case materials are utilized to amplify the literature. The impact of a burgeoning population of older persons on basic social institutions, including the family and the community, is considered. Current societal dilemmas, such as health care and social service delivery systems (including Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security) and end-of-life decision making, receive attention. Elective course taken in the second or third summer. Two quarter-hours.

597. Theory and Clinical Practice with Addicted Clients: Dual Diagnosis (HBSE/PRAC)
Using the four psychologies with addictions theories, this course will focus on the assessment of addicted persons with multiple diagnoses. For example, the relationship between addictions, compulsive behaviors, mental health issues and physical illness will be addressed. Thorough biopsychosocial assessments will guide choices of therapeutic interventions in these complex cases. The course will review a range of treatment approaches, including 12-step groups, cognitive and behavioral strategies, psychopharmacology and wellness and mind-body practices. We will be mindful of the influences of race, socioeconomic class, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion/spirituality, disability and age on assessment and treatment. Classroom methods will include lecture, small group interaction, videotapes and case presentations. Elective course taken in the second or third summer. Two quarter-hours.

599. Clinical Social Work and Social Action: Bridging the False Dichotomy (HBSE/PRAC)
This course is designed to help students explore the connections and contradictions that exist between social work ideology, values, knowledge, policies, goals and objectives, as they are enacted in professional social work practice. Students will be asked to reflect on their clinical actions to uncover the meanings and contradictions that exist in their work with clients. Uncovering these contradictions will help students identify the areas of personal and social change that require strategies to reorient their work with their clients. The level at which social and political action takes place will be determined in part by the level at which the contradictions are found, e.g., worker, agency, profession, social policy. Fundamental to the values of this course is that the contradictions at the clinical level must be examined, understood, and engaged before social and political action at other levels can be undertaken. Theories and strategies of social and political action to deal with various levels of contradictions will be examined. Finally, attention will be paid to contradictions and issues related to race, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion and disabilities. Elective course taken in the second or third summer. Two quarter-hours.

5534. Advanced Studies in Race and Racism: Trends and Challenges for Social Work Theory and Practice (HBSE/PRAC)
This course builds upon and deepens themes introduced in course number 334. Racism in the United States: Implications for Social Work Practice.  It continues to examine and explore the nature and impact of oppression, prejudice, discrimination, powerlessness, the relationships between race and social class, gender, and sexual orientation. Special attention will be given to theories of racial identity formation for people who identify and/or are identified as white, of color, biracial, and bicultural, as well as to the examination of white privilege, interpersonal and institutional racism, and the workings of the white power structure. Theories and strategies for change in a clinical practice that is race-sensitive and empowering, as well as one that moves from individual to institutional and community change will be explored. Students will also examine issues of cross racial hostility and coalition building between people of color and white allies. Priority will be given to studying the theoretical, literary, and practice writings of people of color. Elective course taken in the second or third summer. Two quarter-hours.

5536. Mental Health Responses to Disasters in a Community Context (PRAC/SWPS)
Clinical social workers are expected to offer mental health services in the wake of disasters.  Disasters can occur from “natural causes,” (e.g., hurricanes and earthquakes) and are also initiated by human beings, (e.g., bombings, shootings).  This course will consider different types of disasters and the range of clinical responses that social workers provide.  There will be a particular emphasis on the immediate, short-term provision of services, including critical incident stress debriefings.   The course will focus on disaster service delivery systems, crisis intervention skills, policy issues surrounding disaster response and research on effectiveness of interventions.  By the end of this course students should be able to offer basic crisis intervention services to survivors of disasters and have the beginning capacity to work with others to plan and evaluate disaster response programs.  Elective course taken in the second or third summer. Two quarter-hours.


last updated 2/11/08

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