Child and Family Specialization
This specialization educates students for careers in schools, child protection settings, hospitals, and community-based mental health centers that include, though are not limited to, residential services, outreach, health and education services, and home-based therapy. Child and family social work practitioners endeavor to improve child and family well-being by seeking out protective factors that exist within individuals and in the social contexts (e.g., family, school, work, neighborhoods, and communities) where children and families live.
Through this process, child and family practitioners work with people in their communities to draw on protective factors as a means to build capacity. As a result, children and their families learn how to succeed in social environments challenged by stress, poverty, disorganization, and/or oppression. Students in this specialization will learn skills in collaboration, assessment, and child and family therapy and multi–system interventions.
Sample Electives for Child and Family Specialization:
SW 425 Family Approaches in Social Work
SW 595 Child and Adolescence Assessment and Diagnosis
SW 539 Social Work in Schools
SW 566 Play Therapy
Trauma and Interpersonal Violence Specialization
Viewing early-attachment disruptions, neglect, trauma, family, community and global violence as a spectrum, this specialization prepares students to practice with victims and survivors as well as their families and communities. Students also gain skills to work in settings such as courts, jails, or prisons. Electives and field placements educate students to develop their competency and comfort level with a range of clients.
Students learn the social ecology of the criminal justice system, how to be an effective “guest” in a “host” environment (e.g., prison, court, police station, district attorney’s office, etc.), and the assessment and treatment of involuntary clients informed by strengths-based models that embrace social justice. Students become equally equipped to work with juvenile and adult clients; males and females; victims and offenders; individuals, families, and groups. The specialization also provides post-graduate opportunities for learning in specialty areas of intervention.
Sample Electives for Trauma and Interpersonal Violence Specialization:
SSW 482 Social Work Practice With Domestic Violence
SSW 528 Child & Adolescent Trauma
SSW 529 Forensic Social Work
SSW 582 Attachment & Neurobiology
SSW 588 Case-Based Learning in the Treatment of Childhood Trauma
Specialization in Mental Health and Addictions
This specialization prepares students for careers in mental health and/or addictions. Examples include work with clients struggling with severe mental illness; those with addictions and those with co-occurring disorders, who receive care in settings such as inpatient units, residential treatment programs, day programs, and community-based support programs. The specialization also is designed for students who wish to work with clients with psychological and social problems of a less severe nature who receive help in mental health clinics and family agencies.
In conjunction with field settings aligned with this specialization, electives provide skills in rapid assessment and more thoroughgoing evaluation and formulation. Students learn to use several treatment modalities such as psychodynamic therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and group therapy. They become skilled at developing treatment relationships and differentially using themselves with a wide range of clients over time or in brief encounters. They deepen their theoretical understanding of mental illness, neurobiology, addictive behavior, and treatment processes.
Sample Electives for Mental Health and Addictions Specialization:
SW483 Cognitive Behavioral Approaches to Practice
SW571 Clinical Social Work With Addictions
SW 578 Practice With Severe and Persistent Mental Illness
SW584 Clinical Practice With Individuals: A Psychodynamic Model
SW475 Narrative Approaches
Specialization in Health and Aging
Students in this specialization may concentrate in health or aging or can combine both areas for a dual focus.
Health
As clinicians, case managers, program directors, and administrators, social workers work in a range of health-care settings, including neighborhood health centers, community and rehabilitation hospitals, AIDS service organizations (ASOs), large urban medical centers, and hospice programs. Students focusing on Health will develop skills and expertise in clinical work with individuals and families in health-care settings, skills in larger systems interventions, and an understanding of the social work role in interdisciplinary collaboration. Course content for this specialization reflects a diverse area of concerns: end-of-life care, disabilities and chronic conditions, spirituality, and ethical and legal dilemmas. The psycho–social dimensions of care are examined in the context of current health-care policy issues such as health-care reform, health disparities, and changes in the health-care delivery system.
Aging
This specialization focuses on the full range of health and mental health services for older adults, including those who remain in their own homes and communities. Students learn relevant clinical skills for work with individuals and families and about related social policies at the local, state, national, and international level. They examine the way in which social policies will need to be developed in response to this growing population. Social workers in the field of geriatrics practice in a range of settings, including hospitals, home-care agencies, assisted-living facilities, nursing homes, mental health and substance abuse clinics.
Sample Electives for Health/Aging Specialization:
SW478 Social Work Practice in Healthcare
SW 507 Interdisciplinary Approaches to Health Care Management of Older Adults (at Harvard Medical School)
SW 501 Social Work Practice with Elders
SW588 Advocacy and Social Action in Gerontology
SW471 Spirituality
SW545: Political Strategies for Professional Social Workers (in Washington, D.C.)
