300

This course provides students with knowledge and skills regarding interventions with chemically dependent clients and their family members in a variety of settings. Students acquire a clinical understanding of chemical dependency and recovery issues. Non-majors in related disciplines are welcomed to enroll in this course.

This course focuses on the application of basic generalist social work skills that demonstrate an understanding and application of the continuum of social work practice in working with individuals.  This course is designed to provide students with a beginning understanding of generalist social work practice.  Students will learn the social work processes of engagement, assessment, planning, intervention, evaluation, termination, and follow-up with individuals.  This course continues the introduction of the NASW Code of Ethics and the ethical standards relevant to beginning professional practice.  In addition, the course focuses on the acquisition of skills needed for generalist practice with individuals. 

This course, designed for students in social work and/or other helping professions, will focus on principles and techniques for helping oneself and others in crisis.  A crisis is defined as a loss of psychological equilibrium, or an upset in an individual's steady state of functioning, triggered by either a normative or traumatic stressor.  This course will explore developmental crises as well as numerous situational crises, including personal victimization, suicide, homicide, violence, natural disaster, trauma, and the crisis of loss.  Students will learn necessary models, techniques, and skills to work with individuals in a crisis situation.  This course will provide students with the ability to conduct a comprehensive risk assessment, while assessing and understanding the individual and/or family in crisis.  Students will learn how to prevent escalation of a crisis, which may result in injury to self and/or others.  Students will also learn to implement a crisis management plan.  Research based practice models and interventions will be discussed and used throughout the course.  Due to the nature of crisis work, burn out, compassion fatigue, and self-care will also be emphasized throughout the course.

This course is designed to introduce students to beginning social work practice associated with families and groups.  This course emphasizes the application of theory and the acquisition of practice skills to work with families and groups in diverse practice settings.  This course will emphasize engagement, assessment, planning, intervention, evaluation, termination, and follow-up in mezzo practice.  The impact of the larger social system, as well as cultural factors, on families and groups will be emphasized throughout the course.  In addition, students will gain knowledge and skills in conceptualization of groups, planning of groups, and group facilitation.  Additional therapeutic techniques such as confrontation, conflict management, and additive empathy will also be discussed throughout the course.

This course is designed to introduce students to organizational theories and interventions used in practice with diverse populations in communities and organizations.  Building on knowledge of group dynamics, students will demonstrate skills in organizational analysis, community needs assessment, community and organizational level intervention development, and policy advocacy.  The emphasis of this course is on synthesizing knowledge and skills from ethics, cultural diversity, family and group dynamics, and social policy.

This course introduces students to the nature and centrality of the experience of loss and subsequent grief in their personal lives, in the lives of their clients, and in their role as professional helpers.  This course emphasizes the variety and types of loss experienced throughout the life cycle.  Special attention will be given to cultural variations and norms in the grief experience and the importance of social justice and human rights.  This course examines how psychological, social, cultural, and historical factors influence individuals' coping responses during loss and the last stage of life.  Controversial health care, end of life, organ donation, and after life issues will be explored.  In addition, special populations will be discussed, such as the loss of a child or losing a loved one to violence.  This course is designed to stimulate a deeper self-awareness, a greater ability to be more mindful, and an increased skill in assisting others and ourselves through the grief process.  This class is beneficial for social work students or students in other helping professions.

This course will explore the developmental stages of childhood and adolescence with a specific focus on how at-risk youth populations navigate the normative tasks associated with this stage.  This course will therefore examine the relationship between micro, mezzo, and macro circumstances and atypical youth development.  This course will emphasize how social workers, or those in the helping profession, can help identify youth in at-risk situations and how various resources can be implemented to ameliorate or minimize the harm.  The ecological aspects of at-risk youth will be explored including the environmental settings of family, neighborhoods, schools, and communities.  Besides risky environments, high-risk behaviors will be identified as they relate to school dropout, sexual behavior, youth suicide, teen substance use/abuse, youth violence, and school shootings.  Biopsychosocial spiritual assessment strategies as well as prevention and intervention strategies will be discussed. 

This course looks at issues, facts and information about aging and presents a comprehensive overview of Social Work practice with older adults. The course reflects: a) the most current

information and understanding of how social work has a vital role in providing quality of service in older adults; b) the challenges of providing counseling services in a variety of environmental settings – urban, rural, for profit, not for profit agencies, etc; c) the opportunities and advantages of successful aging and longevity.

Social workers constantly face ethical issues and dilemmas in all fields of social work practice. This course is designed to increase students’ awareness of ethical issues and help them develop ethical reasoning skills. This course focuses on acquiring and practicing the skills of ethical decision-making in micro, mezzo, and macro social work practice. Examining social work values, application of ethical theory, utilizing the Code of Ethics, and methods of ethical analysis will be a central feature of this course. In addition, this course will explore numerous professional issues such as licensure, legal issues, and professional practice. 

This workshop focuses on development of awareness, knowledge, understanding, and culturally sensitive skills for social work practice with Latino/a/x individuals.  This workshop will provide social work students foundational knowledge and skills to provide members of the Latino community with culturally sensitive services.  This workshop will consider the circumstances within which Latino/a/x individuals live, the complexity of their cultural and personal histories and identities.  It will cover pertinent cultural concepts (i.e., acculturation, ethnic identity), and exercises for personal reflections on cultural awareness in order to provide entry-level skill development in applying culturally sensitive practice with Latino/a/x clients. 

This course introduces theories and models of social work interventions with families.  Students will deepen their understanding of the use of the genogram.  An overview of the history of family therapy grounds students as the course explores Family of Origin Family Therapy, Structural Family Therapy, and Solution-Focused Family Therapy.  Application of theoretical concepts are applied to assess and intervene with a case.

This workshop is intended to provide students with information and training that will enhance their personal and professional understanding of intimate relationships.  The concept of intimate relationships will be explored, followed by common problems that exist in our intimate relationships.  Some of these problems are a result of social cognition, communication, changes in culture and societal norms, or due to more severe behaviors such as violence in relationships.

The workshop is designed to give students from all majors the basic facts about HIV/AIDS. The topics will include the history of HIV/AIDS, transmission, diagnosis, treatment and prevention.  This workshop will help students understand the impact of HIV/AIDS and the importance of advocacy.  Other public health issues will be discussed, including other STDs.

This workshop is designed to give students from all majors the basic facts about substance use and the adolescent population.  The topics will include the prevalence, risk factors, assessment, treatment, and prevention of substance use in the adolescent population.  Current trends in adolescent substance use will be examined.

Child sexual abuse in organizational settings--schools, churches, and other youth-serving settings--commands a substantial amount of public attention.  This workshop uses a case-study approach to understand institutional failures which increase the risk of sexual abuse, and institutional prevention strategies which decrease the risk of sexual abuse.  Focusing specifically on organizations, this workshop will analyze how systems-level responses must differ from individual-level interventions and the special role that organizational-level interventions play in the prevention of child sexual abuse.

This workshop is designed to provide students with knowledge and insight of at-risk youth. Guided by the ecological theory and a risk and resiliency perspective, the workshop will emphasize how social workers, or those in the helping profession, can identify, engage, and assess youth who present at-risk. The workshop will emphasize how youth can be identified in at-risk situations and how various resources can be implemented to ameliorate or minimize the harm. The ecological aspects of at-risk youth will be explored including the environmental settings of family, neighborhoods, schools, and communities. Besides risky environments, numerous high-risk behaviors will be identified and explored.

The way that Chicago looks and feels is, in part, due to decades of policy decisions which have created the City as we know it today. This workshop seeks to lift the veil on the ways in which policy shapes even the most minute details of the urban environment and creates geographic inequalities. Urban space is constantly changing, and the possibilities for those changes are shaped by local, state, and national policy. Understanding how to read urban space as a policy text will assist students in analyzing individual- and community-level outcomes.

The profession of social work and the Catholic Social Tradition (“CTS”) contain resonant approaches to certain social problems. By taking a deep, detailed dive into several major works within the CTS, this workshop seeks to place the CTS and social work in conversation. This workshop will proceed as a close reading of, and discussion about, three major encyclicals within the CTS: Rerum Novarum, Centesimus Annus, and Laudato Si’. Students will draw connections between the documentary history and contemporary social problems.

This workshop is intended to provide students with knowledge that will enhance their personal and professional understanding of gender similarities and differences.  This workshop will focus on the larger society's influence on gender norms, gender stereotypes, and gender roles.  Communication and behavioral differences between males and females will be explored.  Students will learn to recognize common misunderstandings in communicating with the opposite sex and strategies for more effective communication.

This workshop provides the knowledge and skills necessary to identify and work with immigrant populations experiencing oppression and discrimination. Students will begin to develop knowledge of local and national policies as they pertain to immigrants, and how issues relate to social work advocacy.  This workshop examines perspectives and information related to multiple dimensions, including race, disability, age, gender, religion, and sexual orientation and provides entry-level skill development in applying cultural sensitivity to work with immigrant clients.

This workshop is intended to provide students with insight and skills that will enhance their professional capacity when working with clients who are treatment resistant.  Resistance will be explored as it applies to individuals with chronic mental illness, involuntary clients, and unmotivated clients.  Concepts related to clinician resistance will also be explored.  Guided by the Stage of Change model, this workshop will emphasize how social workers, or those in other helping professions, can identify, engage, and intervene with traditionally challenging individuals.  Best practice models for service delivery will also be explored. 

This workshop focuses on the professional duties of a school social worker, IDEA, and services to children and their families.  Emphasis is placed on the nature of school social work, education required, and how to prepare for a career as a school social worker.  The workshop explores ethical issues that arise in the school setting.  Case examples are used to illustrate the nature of school social work and ethical considerations.

This workshop is geared towards students who are on the path to becoming helping professionals. Helping professionals who experience work as highly meaningful can easily become emotionally and physically exhausted and stressed, leading to burnout or other types of trauma. The purpose of this workshop is to examine the concept of self-care and its importance in the helping professional’s life. Students will engage in discussion and multiple exercises to help clarify, demonstrate, and develop a meaningful way to care for themselves now and moving into their future careers.

Course content and area of study are determined by the student in consultation with the faculty member supervising the independent study.