SW 505 - Foundation Generalist Social Work Practice

3 Credit(s)

This course is the first of four in the practice sequence. It provides the student with an overview of generalist social work practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. The course focuses on the values, concepts, and skills necessary to conduct social work practice from a generalist perspective in the context of a social service agency or program. SW 505 Foundation Generalist Practice is followed by SW 506 Foundation Social Work Practice with Individuals, Families, and Small Groups. These foundation practice courses, along with the two foundation field practica (SW 552 & SW 553), provide a solid grounding in generalist social work practice and prepare the student for the advanced concentration in clinical social work practice with individuals, families, and groups. This course will provide the student with the conceptual framework and techniques of the strengths-based approach to assessing client systems and developing appropriate social work interventions. Critical thinking and experiential learning are emphasized throughout the course. Class discussions, readings, exercises, and assignments will be directed at developing a range of social work skills including: a) analyzing and resolving ethical dilemmas; b) developing and sustaining helping relationships with clients systems; c) conducting assessments of various sized client systems; d) selecting and implementing appropriate intervention strategies with individual, family, small group, organizational, and community client systems; e) working with diverse populations; and f) monitoring and evaluating social work practice interventions.
Corequisite(s): For on-campus MSW students, SW 552 is a corequisite.