SW 6062 - Advanced Practice II in Public Services: Strengths-based Commitment to Change

Following the theory base developed in SW 6061 students will gain a greater application skill with solution focus, motivational interviewing, and functional family therapy models, assessment, intervention, and evaluation strategies and will focus on developing competencies for assessing and intervening within micro, mezzo, and macro systems across the life span. A focus in this class will be for the student to be able to articulate her/his own practice style and methods and be able to assess and intervene when in a variety of ways to ensure the best potential for progress toward identified goals and objectives which have been established jointly by the social worker and family system. Students will learn to adapt skills to a variety of populations and develop strategies that are responsive to change needs of the population and individual being served. Using videotapes and other aids students will develop specific skills in collaboration, coordination, and developing informal networks for support. Students will understand how to interact with a variety of professions, write court reports, respond to record keeping expectations, quality review teams, and engage in ongoing professional development. Using the tenets and following the principles of "best practice fidelity" students will bring philosophy, assumptions, theory and action together within a personal awareness which will ensure the individual's effectiveness to enter, engage, motivate and change maladaptive relational processes in micro, mezzo, and macro frameworks across the lifespan.