Spring 2024 Seated and Hybrid Electives

This course will explore legal and policy developments pertaining to climate change. Approaches considered will range in jurisdictional scale, temporal scope, policy orientation, regulatory target, and regulatory objective. Although course readings and discussion will focus on existing and proposed responses to climate change, the overarching aim of the course will be to anticipate how the climate change problem will affect our laws, our organizations, and our lives in the long run. This course provides students with an understanding of the ways in which the history of community organizing and development informs community theory and policy across urban and rural settings. With an emphasis on group development theory, students will be introduced to the major theories and policies that impact neighborhood/community capacity, including but not limited to theories of poverty, inequality, human rights, urban and rural community organizing and development, and neighborhood organizing. A particular focus is the intersection of these theories and policies within this framework that can create social capital and foster entrepreneurship, social innovation, and cross-sector collaboration.

This course focuses on community responses to child maltreatment and the clashes between the current structures, societal values, and investment in child wellbeing. The course explores responses, including trauma-informed and human rights approaches, across multiple community systems, including child welfare agencies, social safety nets, health care systems, law enforcement, and schools. This course is designed for students across many majors, including students who are interested in public health, social work, human services, nursing and other health professions, sociology, psychology, law, and education.

Prerequisite:  SW 225 Perspectives on Child Maltreatment and Advocacy

The course is designed to increase student understanding of the adverse experiences of children growing up in various countries. The purpose of this course is to expose students to considerations of socioeconomics, health, culture, religion, and politics and how these affect the welfare and well-being of children across the world. This course examines advocacy efforts using a trauma-informed, human rights framework.

This course is organized primarily as a seminar that will highlight Motivational Interviewing (MI) approaches to help clients build commitment and reach a decision to change behavior. This course provides a forum for case presentation and discussion with an emphasis on discussing cases from student’s field placements and/or practice settings. Theories of behavioral change will be discussed, and the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) of intentional behavior change will be highlighted as an integrative framework for understanding the process of behavior change.

MI is an evidence-based practice for addictive behaviors, but applications of motivational interviewing have been extended to behavioral change in general, including social work, mental health, health promotion, general medical care, corrections, and community and organizational settings. In addition, the course will discuss MI’s application to practice with “mandated” clients.

This course is approved for CEUs.

This course examines social work practice in the context of the legal and justice systems, including criminal and civil courts, child custody issues, and mandated treatment. It provides students with a broad overview of the justice system within the United States, and how that system interacts with other structures and policies to affect social workers and the populations we serve. Students will review forensic social work practice within a broad array of settings with diverse populations. Recent trends in the criminal justice system will be examined, including mass incarceration, civil commitment, the criminalization of poverty, and the so-called war on drugs. Special emphasis is placed on the disproportionate impact of these trends on marginalized communities within the United States. 

This course focuses on people who have been characterized as having a “personality disorder.” The course is designed to provide students with an overview of historical and current perspectives and controversies in this area, including controversies surrounding interventions with this population.

This course is approved for CEUs.

This course focuses on the origin, theory, components, research, and application of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), a treatment method originally developed for treating trauma and now being applied to a range of client problems. Students will acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to utilize this method appropriately and effectively with diverse client populations and problems. Such use is based on an understanding of the theoretical basis of EMDR, client safety issues, integration with a comprehensive treatment plan, and supervised practice with the components of EMDR as well as its various applications.

Prerequisites: Permission of instructor: participants should be either students entering their last year of a professional human services degree program (e.g., MSW, MS in rehabilitation counseling), or licensed/certified mental health professionals. Credentialed providers without a graduate degree may be eligible to take the course under some conditions. All participants must have appropriate permission to utilize EMDR in their work (or internship) setting.

Apply: Apply: Students must complete both the EMDR application, and an online Social Work Non-Degree Student application if not currently a matriculated student. Last day to submit applications will be December 1st. 

This course is approved for CEUs.

This course is a practice-oriented elective. The purpose of this course is to provide students with exposure to and an opportunity to develop knowledge and skills in using play therapy with individuals, families and groups in diverse settings. Students will become familiar with various theoretical practice models and learn to apply those models with children experiencing a variety of problems across diverse populations. This course will expose the student to basic knowledge about play therapy as a component of services to children, including in mental health, child welfare, health and community-based settings.

This course is approved for CEUs.

This course is designed to provide the student with an overview of Social Work Practice in the Public Schools. Students will examine the history of school social work, state and federal education laws, educational issues and policies, conceptual frameworks (such as the ecological approach), and service delivery models. Evidence-based programs, interventions and practices will be highlighted, in particular those that optimize the student's potential for growth and learning. The course is intended to develop the student's awareness and understanding of the unique role that the school social worker has and how it impacts the lives of children, families, school staff and communities.

This course is approved for CEUs.

This course will focus on the central human experiences of loss, grief and bereavement that occur across the life course. Guided examination of current theories, research and evidence based practice(s) in grief counseling will be conducted. This course will focus on building knowledge about the nature of grief, mourning and bereavement as it is influenced by age, developmental stage, gender, race, culture, ethnicity and social context. Familiarity with the various types of losses that occur in all age groups is germane to effective social work practice in all agency settings. This course is designed to provide students with greater awareness, increased knowledge and basic skills for assessing and intervening with loss and grief in micro-, mezzo- and macrosocial domains. It will incorporate a trauma-informed and human rights perspective to social work practice with people who are adapting to loss.

This course is approved for CEUs.

This elective course will introduce graduate students in Social Work and Nursing to issues relevant to working with veterans and military family members. This interdisciplinary course will also provide students the opportunity to discuss topics across care-providing disciplines. Course content will include an introduction to military values, structure, culture, and terminology; government and community- based service delivery systems and supports available to veterans and military families; and the changing nature of the military, such as special issues related to women, racial/ethnic minorities, and gay and lesbian service members and veterans. Using a trauma-informed framework, the course will examine the physical and mental health impacts of service and combat on veterans (e.g., physical trauma and disabilities, psychological trauma and PTSD, moral injury) as well as challenges of reintegration (e.g., unemployment, homelessness, access to services). These issues will be applied to military spouses/partners, families, and children, as will topics of separation, reunion, transitioning from the war zone to home, caregiver burden, loss, grieving, and fear of future deployments.

Restorative justice (RJ) is a social justice approach toward repairing the harm, promoting positive interpersonal relationships and building community when conflict, misconduct or criminal behavior occurs. RJ brings social justice to the criminal justice system, schools, and communities. With youth, RJ is an evidence-based approach toward improving school climate; interrupting the school-to-prison pipeline that disproportionately affects youth of color; and creating safe and supportive environments for children and youth without resorting to punitive responses. 

In this class students will learn about RJ and practice skills in conducting RJ circles in school, criminal justice system, and community setting with children, youth and adults. Students with an interest in working in criminal justice settings, neighborhood community centers, schools, child welfare settings and other organizations serving children, youth, and adults are encouraged to take this course.

This course is approved for CEUs.

In this interprofessional course, students work alongside students from other health professions at community-based clinics and other settings working toward racial equity in the delivery of basic health care services. Students may be working with students from other university schools or departments to conduct assessments, provide psychosocial information, coordinate services and advocate for the community. Students will utilize social work skills learned in classroom and field education, including a trauma-informed and human rights lens, to assess the macro forces that impact health and health care in economically challenged neighborhoods.