This course is designed to provide students with Simmons-specific resources that can be utilized to foster personal and academic success. It will also give students the opportunity to connect with their classmates and reflect on key issues and situations they will face as college students while transitioning to the Simmons community.

This course will focus on academic, co-curricular, and career planning. In addition to assignments related to resume and interview preparation, internship preparation, and an exploration of graduate school opportunities, the course includes units on the development of competencies in financial literacy, digital literacy, and cybersecurity, as well as an exploration of what it means to be AI-literate in a specific field. SIM 200 will be cohorted by discipline (Humanities, Social Sciences, STEM, Health Professions), so students are advised to take this class after they declare their major.

Students will be required to participate (or make a plan to participate) in a list of approved applied leadership experiences and this course will provide curricular support as well as opportunities for reflection and skill building. It is relevant for any student who wishes to practice their leadership.

This leadership reflection course provides a comprehensive exploration of essential skills needed for successful collaboration in team and organizational environments and is designed to be the third course in the Applied Leadership Certificate. 

Covers emergence and development of sociological thought and research. Introduces basic concepts, theoretical approaches, and methodological strategies for the study of social structures, processes, and relations. Focuses on the seven thematic areas of the department to cover a range of social issues useful to a critical understanding of society, social inequalities, and the interconnectedness across national and social borders.

Examines the unique perspective of health care from the cultural lens appropriate to women of color. Historical, social, environmental, and political factors that contribute to racial and gender disparities in health care are analyzed. Students will develop cultural competency tools for more effective health care delivery.

Introduces methods and strategies used in research in the social sciences. Teaches responsible consumption of social science research and presents the logic and skills of social research methods. Emphasizes the nature of inquiry and the relationship between theory and research. Includes social research ethics and an introduction to data analysis using computers in research. Previous courses in statistics or computers not required. Instructor consent required.

Emphasizes social determinants of physical and mental health and cross-cultural experiences of illness and seeking care. Pays special attention to the unequal distribution of health and illness in the U.S, the role of culture in our understandings of health and illness, and the social organization of health care.

Examines health and illness from a global perspective. Current public health dilemmas are analyzed, highlighting the role of colonialism, culture, development, and public health policies. Case studies will focus on how health issues are handled in different parts of the world, highlighting the roles of culture and political economy.

Explores the interrelationship between birth and death as literal and metaphorical realities. Examines how structural inequalities shape people's birth and death rituals and how race, class, nation, and gender impact birthing and dying processes. Explores birth and death as uniquely individual and profoundly social processes.

Consent of department required.

Continuation of SPAN-101.

Develops communicative skills through a selective grammar review, discussion of topics of interest, and frequent use of audiovisual materials. Expands reading comprehension and cultural awareness through examples of Hispanic prose and poetry. Also offered as a TC.

Provides current and future health services professionals with the skills necessary to communicate with Spanish-speaking clients and patients. Covering content related to global health, women's health, mental health, and bioethics, this course underscores the importance of intercultural communication within medical training.

Presents Hispanic culture, society, and politics, as seen through the prism of cinema. Topic changes yearly. Open to non-majors.

This course is part of the Autism Specialization Program. SPND 490 course provides an overview of the major disability categories under IDEA. The course builds on the foundation of typical cognitive and physical child development, devoting attention to early childhood theorist in the field of child development. An in-depth study of IDEA disability categories, accommodation strategies, assistive technology to promote independence, language and communication development, social and emotional development, home/school collaboration and inclusive lesson planning will be a focus of this course.

This course is part of the Autism Specialization Program. Content in this course will focus on standardized and criterion-referenced assessment, curriculum development, and teaching/learning procedures to plan instructional programs for individuals diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Emphasis will be placed on creating a functional IEP based on assessment results, developing individualized educational programs, and modifying the instruction and curriculum if the students are not making progress.

This course is part of the Autism Specialization Program. SPND 493 provides an introduction to and overview of evidence-based strategies for evaluating the behavior of individuals with autism and developmental disabilities. The design of systematic observation and measurement systems and interpretation of evaluative data are reviewed. Students also gain experience in designing, displaying, interpreting, and reporting evidence-based behavior evaluations.

This course is part of the Autism Specialization Program. SPND 496 involves students working with learners with intensive special needs/autism in their full time severe practicum placement under the mentorship of a Program Supervisor. Students study classroom teaching techniques and procedures and work with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks to write well-structured lesson plans incorporating all Candidate Assessment of Performance elements. Students will participate in a internship in a public school inclusive classroom with learners with special needs and English Language Learners.

This course is part of the Autism Specialization Program. This course content is based on the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks and the Candidate Assessment of Performance. The seminar supports student's experiences in their practicum and inclusion placements. Students will learn and demonstrate understanding on how to use and incorporate the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks into teaching well-structured lessons for students with autism. Through class discussions, article reviews, peer evaluations and the development of their professional teaching eportfolio, students will incorporate the six essential elements from the Candidate Assessment of Performance into all their coursework and teaching. This course includes modules to meet the assistive technology state requirements.

This is an introduction to statistics for everyone who needs to collect, describe, and draw inferences from data. We will discuss various sources of data (experiments, surveys, etc.), graphical and numerical descriptions of data, confidence intervals and hypothesis testing for drawing inferences, and simple and multiple linear regression for making predictions. Students will become proficient in the use of R for these tasks.

This course serves as an introduction to data science using R. Students will learn how to wrangle, organize, and manipulate data in a variety of formats; design accurate and effective data graphics; "tidy" data principles; perform basic spatial data analyses and create data maps; predictive modeling and statistical learning; tools for working with text data. Prerequisites include Introductory Statistics (or equivalent) and a willingness to code.

This course is an intermediate statistics course that focuses on fitting statistical models to data . Students will learn how to pose a statistical question, perform appropriate statistical analysis of the data, and properly interpret and communicate their results. We will cover the following topics: designing experiments, permutation tests, bootstrap confidence intervals, one- and two-way analysis of variance, chi-square tests, p-values, simple and multiple regression modeling, model prediction, and goodness of fit. Extensive use is made of the R programming language. Extensive use is made of the R statistical software.

Provides valuable industry experience. Credit hours are typically based on the number of work hours, determined by the instructor. Successful completion of work experiences as well as post-internship presentation.

Introduces students to the historical development of professional social work and social welfare and orients them to the purposes, values, and worldview of the profession. The evolution of contemporary social work, contributions of key historical figures and pioneers, role of influential social policies, and ways in which social workers have shaped the social service system are discussed. Finally, an overview of contemporary social work practice principles with an emphasis on social and economic justice is provided.

The first in the Program's series of four practice courses for social work majors, this course is aimed at orienting students to social work practice by providing a firm framework of social work knowledge and values and specific foundational skills. Students examine the ways that research, social policy and programs, economic and political forces, social work history, and explanatory theoretical paradigms inform work with clients. An introduction to the social work generalist perspective, this course allows students to begin to develop a professional identity and the relationship-building, interviewing, and planned change skills necessary for work with client systems of all sizes. Students become grounded in the constructs which make the social work profession unique.

This course prepares students to plan for, assess, facilitate, and evaluate social work practice with groups. Students will develop an understanding of the developmental stages of groups, roles among group members, and the function of mutual aid.

This course prepares students to plan for, assess, facilitate, and evaluate social work practice with groups. Students will develop an understanding of the developmental stages of groups, roles among group members, and the function of mutual aid.

The Social Work Field Placement and Seminar I (Fall) is designed for the senior social work student in order to integrate classroom learning with practical social work experience in an agency setting. Throughout the Fall semester, students participate in 16 hours of field placement per week toward completion of the 425-hour, year-long BSW senior field placement requirement. In addition, students meet once per week for a 1 hour and twenty minute, in-class field seminar led by the BSW Program Field Director. Through reflective discussion, weekly assignments, and major projects and papers, the Field Seminar focuses on the integration of theory and practice, building the student's professional social work identity, enhancing self- awareness skills, advancing practice competencies, and synthesizing field learning. All aspects of agency field work, including learning to work within the agency context, effectively using supervision, using research to inform practice, utilizing social work values and ethics in practice, and applying social work knowledge and skills with clients are addressed.

This course provides students with the necessary skills to analyze the social welfare policies, benefits, and services that create the context in which all social workers practice. Students will learn about current state and federal policies related to a range of social welfare concerns (e.g., poverty reduction, health, housing/homelessness, criminal justice, disability, child welfare, immigration), the evolution of these policies, and the socio political and economic environment that has influenced their development and implementation. Students will build upon what they learned in SW403 Macro Social Work: Social Policies, Communities and Organizations by delving more deeply into various policy analysis frameworks, the mechanics of conducting policy analysis, and the evaluation methods to determine a policy's impact and effectiveness. To appreciate the complexities, contradictions, strengths, and weaknesses of the American approach to social welfare, students will be encouraged to think critically about the role of economics, politics, ideologies, values, and alternate policy models in each of these areas. The roles of power and privilege in social welfare policy will be assessed as they pertain to equality, equitability, and discrimination based on identity and social location. Class discussion, readings, and assignments will underscore the reciprocal relationship between clinical social work practice and social welfare policy.

This course is an intensive examination of the dynamics of various forms of oppression in U.S. society. The selection of the oppression of racism is deliberate. Through the analysis of critical race theory and intersectionality, students will come to understand the reasoning for this initial emphasis. The course begins with an analysis of racism from structural, (social) psychological and applied perspectives. This approach frames the analysis of other forms of oppression. Types of oppression (sexism, classism, homophobia, etc.) are examined in relationship to sociopolitical and economic factors, and historical themes that continue into the present day are identified. The course will explore the costs of oppression to all individuals and its differential impact on individuals in dominant and subordinate positions. The importance of power and the dynamics of domination and subordination in all forms of oppression will be explored. Practice issues will be examined in relation to multi-level interventions (i.e., individual, group, organizational and institutional).

Human Behavior in the Social Environment addresses two areas of focus. One is an ecological-developmental approach to human behavior in the social environment, taking a social constructionist perspective, emphasizing the ways in which culture (of large groups and small) and the broader social environment shape human behavior and identity. Concepts of resilience and resistance to oppression are emphasized using frameworks such as empowerment theories, systems theory and human ecology. This course emphasizes micro, meso, and macro level social systems that influence individual behavior, including families, groups, organizations and communities, as well as the larger society within historical and cultural contexts. Particular attention is paid to culture, race, class, gender and sexual orientation as dynamic social constructions that can be sources of both oppression and strength at all levels of social systems. The second area of focus is on current theoretical frameworks to understand the bio-psycho-social-cultural processes that shape human behavior and development of self across the life span. We emphasize the interaction of individuals with their environments as they mutually influence each other, emphasizing cultural diversity and social justice. The application of multiple theoretical perspectives to Social Work practice is emphasized.

This one semester course provides knowledge of the major categories of diagnoses for adults as formulated in DSM-5 and of theoretical perspectives in those categories. Attention is given to the dynamics of development and culture, and to the interrelationship among biological, psychological, and social/cultural systems that impact diagnosis. Focus will be on utilizing these elements in order to provide a comprehensive bio-psycho-social assessment. Treatments specifically related to these diagnoses will be noted.

This two-semester course exposes students to selected generalist practice theories for social workers. The course will examine various levels of intervention, practice settings, and theoretical perspectives. Students are introduced to the general processes that are common to every client system level: preparation and engagement, differential use of self, assessment, contracting, intervention planning, intervention evaluation, and termination of services that are applicable no matter the setting or client group. Considered over two semesters is work with individuals, families, groups and the social context in which these client groups exist. A special concern is the impact of diversity and oppression for client and worker. Emphasis of this semester is mastering multi-level assessment. Actual practice dilemmas are examined through case discussions, videotapes, role-play, and other exercises.

Social workers across all sectors of practice engage with individuals, groups, families, organizations, and communities that are significantly affected by substance use and substance use disorders. In this 3-credit course, students will become familiar with the histories and theories that shape understanding of substance use. Set within a social justice framework, students will critically analyze the intersections of substance use with racism, classism, xenophobia, and other forms of structural oppression. Informed by the person-in-environment perspective, students will explore the complex interactions of historical, political, cultural, and social factors that influence substance use and health disparities. Motivational interviewing and harm reduction strategies are foregrounded, preparing students to deliver services for people who use alcohol and other drugs and have mixed goals related to substances, whether that is to maintain or make changes to their use. Through a simulated learning experience, there will be opportunities to practice engaging with a client and assessing their substance use. A comprehensive, strengths-based, collaborative, and multidimensional biopsychosocial assessment will be developed. Students will acquire knowledge and skills related to evidence-informed substance use prevention, education, assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing recovery support. Throughout the semester, students will be invited to reflect on their own perceptions of substance use and people who use drugs to increase self-awareness and promote clinical and policy practices that are guided by compassion and interprofessional research.

This 3-credit course is the first course of a required two-semester sequence and is taken concurrent with field education courses. Building on knowledge and skills mastered from the foundation practice course, the course expands and deepens students' understanding and application of the major social work paradigms (ecological, social justice, cultural responsiveness, ethics, and use of evidence). Through case examples and role play, students will enhance their ability to collect, appraise, and organize appropriate clinical data throughout all stages of the social work process (engagement, assessment, formulation, goal setting, intervention, and evaluation). In addition, students will analyze, compare, contrast, interpret, and apply major social work practice approaches (psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, solution-focused and narrative) to learn how to decide which approach is most beneficial for each specific client in achieving positive outcomes. Finally, students will be able to assess and interpret specific client challenges demonstrating knowledge of course themes related to professional use of self, the therapeutic relationship, assessment skills, and brief treatment. Prerequisite: SW421B. Must be taken concurrently with SW447A.

SW 446A Practicum Education Year IWeekly agency-based practicum, which focuses on foundation social work skills. Students complete agency based assignments in addition to process recordings and assessments.- First year (i.e., generalist/foundation) practicum days are Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.- First year (i.e., generalist/foundation) courses are offered on the following days and times: Monday (evening only), Tuesday (evening only), Wednesday day and evening), Thursday (evening only), Friday (day only).Corequisite: SW 421A

The goal of practicum education is to learn the application of theoretical concepts and social work principles and values learned in the classroom to clinical practice. Practicum education provides supervised learning of advanced practice skills with individuals, families and groups in a variety of clinical settings.- Second year (i.e., specialist/advanced) practicum days are Mondays and Thursdays, and either Wednesday or Friday.- Second year (i.e., specialist/advanced) courses are offered on the following days and times: Monday (evening only), Tuesday (day and evening), Wednesday (evening only), Thursday (evening only), Friday (day only). Corequisite: SW 424A

This course is designed to help students develop foundational knowledge and skills for social work practice with sexual and gender minority populations. Students will utilize a multi-dimensional framework to critically analyze power, privilege, and oppression relative to LGBTQ+ populations. Grounded in a social justice perspective, the first few weeks of the course are designed to help students gain an understanding of relevant ethical principles and dilemmas; models of identity development across race, class, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, and historical period; health disparities and resilience; history of social work discourse related to LGBTQ+ populations; and basic principles for affirmative social work practice. Students will develop knowledge about the mutual influence of individuals, families, and institutional factors, including social policies and cultural factors. Students will learn basic skills for competent practice with LGBTQ+ populations over the life course, with a particular focus on engagement, assessment, and intervention. Specific areas of practice will be explored, including intimate partner violence, suicide risk, HIV/AIDS, and substance use disorders. Students will critically examine the values of the social work profession and reflect on their personal values for the purpose of raising self awareness and examining personal biases related to heterosexism, heteronormativity, transphobia, and cisnormativity.

This course will examine the public health problem of suicide, with specific attention to prevention, intervention, and postvention approaches. Students will gain an understanding of suicide epidemiology and underlying theory, as well as risk and protective factors for suicide. This course will familiarize students with evidence-based practices and ethical considerations with suicidal clients, including learning directly from individuals with lived experience with suicidality. Students will also learn about the current state and national strategies for suicide prevention, as well as policies related to suicide. Upon completion of this course, students will gain skills in assessment and management of suicide risk, intervention and treatment techniques with suicidal clients, and postvention approaches with survivors of suicide loss.

There is a growing interest in psychotherapists of all theoretical orientations, for information about "Mindfulness", the cultivation of intentional, present focused awareness. Mindfulness is a core healing process in psychotherapy and has become a significant influence on contemporary Psychotherapy over the past decade. It has been shown to be a key component in many empirically validated interventions like Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Mindfulness-Based cognitive therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy. In this course we will examine the application of mindfulness to a wide range of clinical populations and conditions as well as the current neuroscience findings of its effects and the history of its development in the west. The course will ask participants to participate in experiential exercises of mindfulness and meditation and practice what they've learned each week between classes. They will also be asked to embody mindfulness as they learn, ensuring the essential qualities of compassion for self and others in the learning.

This 3-credit course is designed to educate students about the basicprinciples of program evaluation and prepare them with the knowledge and skills they need to evaluate social work services, programs, and agencies. Using case examples and their agency settings as laboratories, students will learn about three major types of evaluation�"needs assessment, process, and outcome�"including how to conduct them and the ways that each informs the other. Students will deepen their knowledge of social work program theory and design, with a specific focus on developing logic models, and have the opportunity to applyprogram evaluation principles to practice-level assessments. Throughout the course, students will engage in critical discussion about the tensions, ambiguities, and potential for oppression that accompany current evaluation models and practices. Students will exit the course with the skills necessary to think evaluatively about every aspect of their practice, work collaboratively when engaging in evaluation activities, and apply an anti-oppressive and antiracist lens to those activities. Prerequisite: SW441. Must be concurrent with SW447A or B.

This course examines best practices for providing treatment to child and adolescent survivors of complex trauma as well as intervention strategies designed to work with families who have experienced chronic stress and trauma. Clinical social work with traumatized individuals and families requires a flexible and informed skillset. This course will provide an overview of current literature and empirical evidence relating to the treatment of complex trauma in childhood. It will further review current models of best practice with emphasis placed on work with vulnerable and marginalized populations.This course will provide students the opportunity to understand and engage in a variety of treatment approaches, as well as examine ethical issues, policy issues, and issues pertaining to social justice, and their relationship to trauma treatment. The course will build on the knowledge and skills acquired in the foundation year Human Behavior in the Social Environment and Practice courses.

This three-credit course, which is the first of a two-part sequence with 539B, provides foundational knowledge of the practice of social work in a school setting. Students will learn the history and mission of school social work practice and the contemporary challenges facing schools as systems at macro, mezzo and micro levels, both within and outside the school. They also will become familiar with the interventions that school social workers need to know in order to support healthy functioning among all members of a school community. Specific topics include leveraging multidisciplinary teams to impact school culture and climate, trauma informed care, social-emotional learning, special education, relevant laws and responsibilities pertinent to social work practice, family partnerships, community collaboration, and ethical practice in schools. Students will learn to create and implement school social work interventions across all domains and will center social work values and ethics in their approaches. This course meets the requirement for a clinical practice elective.

This 3-credit course is designed to provide a bridge to the concentration year clinical curriculum and practicum placement. A strong emphasis is on exploring the development of professional social work identity and on supporting students' increasing self-awareness and ability to learn from practice experience. The course will focus on broadening the capacity for the use of self, promoting reflective practice, conceptualizing various theoretical perspectives and their application to clinical work, and enhancing the ability to work across differences.

This 3-credit course introduces students to the theory of attachment, covering areas such as patterns of attachment across the life span, relevant development theories, challenges of adolescence, adult attachment styles and relationships, how different attachment issues may manifest at different stages of life, and practical implications of attachment for conducting clinical therapy sessions. The neurobiology of attachment, the implications for attachment in trauma recovery, and the development of psychopathology from an attachment and neurobiological perspective are explored. Special attention is paid to the early life experiences including preverbal life experiences, adverse experiences of childhood, and the impact of abuse and neglect in childhood. This course explores clinical applications and usefulness of case conceptualization from an attachment and neurobiological aspect. Evidence-based approaches are utilized as the foundation for our exploration of clinical applications.

This course provides an overview of the theoretical underpinnings and clinical applications of dialectical behavioral therapy. Students will learn how to implement DBT treatment methods include integrating skills training into psychotherapy into their clinical practice with a diverse client population who present with a range of disorders and psychosocial concerns. The four key skill sets include: distress tolerance, mindfulness, emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness. Case examples and role-play will be utilized. This course meets the requirement for a clinical practice elective.

This course will provide an overview of major diagnostic categories in child psychopathology and provide students with the skills and abilities to conduct clinical assessments with children and adolescents using a bio-psychosocial developmental framework. An area of focus is case formulation and diagnosis. Attention will be given to the dynamics of development and culture, and to the interrelations among biological, psychological, and social/cultural systems. Teaching techniques include didactic presentations, case examples, videos, guest lectures, and class discussions.

This course serves as the first half of the Advanced Standing Practicum Education experience, and is a course in which students apply, in supervised practice, the theoretical concepts, principles, values, and ethics taught in the specialist level curriculum. In addition to the supervised learning of clinical practice skills with individuals, families, and groups, students learn organizational level social work skills. Case-based learning is deepened and amplified through instruction, process recordings and required written assignments.

This course offers an in-depth view of the social welfare policy process and systems in the United States with select comparisons from other nations. The aims of the course are to familiarize students with 1) a broad range of concepts, theories, and ideas about how social welfare policies and systems function, 2) social and economic justice critiques of social welfare policies and systems, and 3) processes of policy development, change, implementation and evaluation and how these related to social work practice and research. Reading, critical thinking, and peer discussion are emphasized as an approach to learning and processing course content. Policy analysis skills and tools are taught as a means of critically evaluating policy and linking policy frameworks and specific policy issues to students areas of research interest.

This is a required seminar designed to introduce and immerse students in the process of research as a sequence of events, systematically organized to further knowledge and promote social justice using evidence. It is intended to be a first step in students' transition from clinician to research scientist by learning how to take a scientific and conceptual stance to knowledge development. Students will develop a viable research project in a step-by-step process leading to a final research proposal featuring peer-review of each other's work. By loosely following the National Institutes of Health (NIH) model, students will engage in the highest available standards for research proposals, positioning them for success in research, even if they do not intend to pursue NIH-level funding.

This course presents the common descriptive and inferential statistical tests performed in applied research. Topics include: probability theory, normal & non-normal distributions, drawing inference with t-test, ANOVA, and correlation and regression. The emphasis of learning will be more on concepts and applications using IBM SPSS than on computations and statistical theory. This course will provide students with a strong foundation in basic statistical reasoning that will help them in more advanced courses.

This option is intended to allow students to supplement their doctoral study in areas of special interest to them. Contact the director of the doctoral program for more information.

This course provides students with public policy knowledge and analysis skills aimed at integrating public policy issues and outcomes into social work research. Students will learn about: theories and models of policy analysis, designing research for policy change, and translation of scholarly research into policy change. Additionally, students will gain knowledge about policy-making systems and trends with regard to development, implementation and evaluation of evidence-based policy. Dynamics of political systems, policy change, population and stakeholder diversity, and cultural norms and trends will be incorporated throughout the course; students will build critical analysis skills to assess the influence of these dynamics on social work research.

This course is meant for doctoral students considering teaching as part of their career, and for social work educators who seek an opportunity for disciplined reflection on their teaching. Considerable attention is paid to developmental and stylistic issues, teaching methods and course planning.

This is a seminar course designed to help students integrate material learned across PhD courses, advance their individual scholarly agendas and research work, and develop professional academic and career skills. Students enroll in this course SW 685 every semester they are in the program (Fall, Spring, and Summer terms). First and second year students enroll in 685 section A; Third year students enroll in section 685B, and students in their fourth year and beyond enroll in section C, only during Fall and Spring terms.Note: Instructor Consent Needed

This is a seminar course designed to help students integrate material learned across PhD courses, advance their individual scholarly agendas and research work, and develop professional academic and career skills. Students enroll in this course SW 685 every semester they are in the program (Fall, Spring, and Summer terms). First and second year students enroll in 685 section A; Third year students enroll in section 685B, and students in their fourth year and beyond enroll in section C, only during Fall and Spring terms.Note: Instructor Consent Needed

This is a seminar course designed to help students integrate material learned across PhD courses, advance their individual scholarly agendas and research work, and develop professional academic and career skills. Students enroll in this course SWO 685 every semester they are in the program (Fall, Spring, and Summer terms). First and second year students enroll in 685 section A; Third year students enroll in section 685B, and students in their fourth year and beyond enroll in section C, only during Fall and Spring terms.

This practicum is for Social Work doctoral students and focuses on developing and applying pedagogical skills in a classroom setting at the School of Social Work. Before registering, doctoral students must have a signed teaching practicum agreement with the faculty member they will be working with. This is a required practicum.

This practicum is for Social Work PhD students and focuses on developing and applying research skills while working on an active research study at the School of Social Work. Before registering, PhD students must have a signed research practicum agreement with the faculty member they will be working with. This is a required practicum.

This 3-credit course emphasizes an ecological approach to human development and behavior in micro, meso, and macro level social systems of the individual, families and groups, organizations and communities, and larger society that is cognizant of historical and cultural contexts. The first half of this course provides students with a foundation of classic theoretical frameworks in which to understand human development and behavior from using the person-in-environment, biopsychosocial, sociocultural, and social change lens. Students will understand frameworks of ethical decision-making and how to apply principles of critical thinking to those frameworks in practice, research, and policy arenas. Particular attention is paid to culture, race, class, gender and sexual orientation as dynamic social constructions that can be sources of both oppression and strength at all levels of social systems. Concepts of resilience, intersectionality, sociocultural, and social change ground an understanding of empowerment and resistance to oppression. The second half of the course focuses on current theoretical frameworks to understand the processes that shape human behavior and development of self across the life span. The course emphasizes the biopsychosocial processes and the influence of culture and society on human behavior and development. After completing this course, students will learn to understand the value base of the profession and its ethical standards that impact practice with individuals, families and groups, and communities across the life span.

In this one semester 3 credit course students will learn to assess psychiatric diagnoses described in the DSM-5-TR, considering those diagnoses and compounding psychosocial challenges from multi-theoretical lenses. Throughout the course there is a central focus on issues of social justice and oppression, and the interrelationship between biological, psychological, and social/cultural systems that impact diagnosis and treatment. Treatments connected to diagnoses are noted brie�'y. Students will be able to comprehensively assess, diagnose, and write bio-psychosocial assessments of their clients that convey the social justice lens of social work. Teaching techniques may include didactic presentations, guest presenters, videos, class discussions, and practice exercises.

Social workers across all sectors of practice engage with individuals, groups, families, organizations, and communities that are significantly affected by substance use and substance use disorders. In this 3-credit course, students will become familiar with the histories and theories that shape understanding of substance use. Set within a social justice framework, students will critically analyze the intersections of substance use with racism, classism, xenophobia, and other forms of structural oppression. Informed by the person-in-environment perspective, students will explore the complex interactions of historical, political, cultural, and social factors that influence substance use and health disparities. Motivational interviewing and harm reduction strategies are foregrounded, preparing students to deliver services for people who use alcohol and other drugs and have mixed goals related to substances, whether that is to maintain or make changes to their use. Through a simulated learning experience, there will be opportunities to practice engaging with a client and assessing their substance use. A comprehensive, strengths-based, collaborative, and multidimensional biopsychosocial assessment will be developed. Students will acquire knowledge and skills related to evidence-informed substance use prevention, education, assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and ongoing recovery support. Throughout the semester, students will be invited to reflect on their own perceptions of substance use and people who use drugs to increase self-awareness and promote clinical and policy practices that are guided by compassion and interprofessional research.