SOCIAL WORK 631: Social Work Practice I: Foundations
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Course Description
This course is designed to provide students with an overview of the basic knowledge and skills generic to generalist social work practice. Key themes and concepts include: interviewing; relationship building; and assessment as they relate to community-based family practice. The course introduces practice models in relation to populations at risk. Personal and professional values will be discussed, along with the use of self, the importance of evaluation, research and ethics.
This course focuses on introductory generalist practice models with diverse populations, with particular emphasis on interventions with vulnerable populations.
Prerequisites
Admission to the graduate program in social work
Educational Objectives
At the conclusion of this course, it is expected that students will be able to:
1. think critically and demonstrate purposeful interventions with individuals contextualizing them within families, groups, communities, and related systems
2. demonstrating practice skills (interviewing, collecting data, planning and contracting, applying interventions, and evaluation of
those interventions) from an ecological-systems and strengths perspective.
3. employ a philosophy of autonomous practice based on a conscious use of self, guided by the Code of Ethics and understanding of social
work values
4. generate moral principles upon which social work is based, including a commitment to service delivery to disadvantaged populations and
the striving for justice and human dignity for all people
5. mobilize knowledge of theories of social work practice and how those theories relate to the development of interventions and evaluations
6. illustrate an appreciation of diversity in social work practice and become aware of biases and assumptions in order to understand their sense of “other”