This course is an overview of two major areas in Mental Health: 1) Psychological Dysfunctions and 2) Developmental Disabilities. The course examines various etiologies and functioning levels of the psychologically impaired and the developmentally disabled. It further examines intervention and treatment methods from a historical perspective, as well as more recent modalities of community-based treatment services.

A survey of public and private human service programs with special emphasis on current human services available in the city and state. Skills, knowledge, attitudes and values for human service work are examined, as are the methods of intervention and counseling theories available to the human service worker.

This interactive, hands-on course that will focus on professional development skills. Through class lectures, mock interviews, resume writing, guest speakers, practice sessions and homework assignments, students will learn work place etiquette advancement strategies and an introduction to leadership and professional communication/ presentation skills.

A survey of the major current theories practiced in the counseling profession. Roles, responsibilities, and career opportunities for counselors, as well as the development of the counseling profession.

Prerequisite: GHU 140

This course enables students to examine the application of theory during the counseling process.

Prerequisite: Co-requisite: GHU 240

Application of counseling theories through case studies and role-playing.

Prerequisite: GHU 240

Techniques of organizing and working with special client groups are reinforced by role playing and other activities.

Prerequisite: GHU 240

The causes, effects and treatment of disabling mental and physical disorders. Agencies and approaches that help disabled people lead better lives are surveyed.

Prerequisite: GHU 140

A comprehensive overview of current theory, process and practice in family therapy, covering the field's major underpinnings. An examination of family systems theory and different approaches to working with families.

Prerequisite: GHU 240

This course will investigate the psychological, socio-cultural, and physio-pharmacological foundations of addiction. Theories of addiction and treatment will be surveyed from social perspectives.

Prerequisite: GHu 240

This course enables students to understand and apply techniques during the counseling process.

Prerequisite: Corequisite: GHU 242

This course will give students the information and skills needed to meet the basic health needs and health problems of the clients. It will explore common diseases, infection control, chronic ailments, and AIDS. The course will teach students the skills of medicine administration, First Aid, and CPR. The area of medication, negative reactions and emergency interventions will be surveyed.

Prerequisite: GHU 244

Socialization and recreation are important issues in working with the disabled. This course will focus on the needs of the various disabled client groups and will teach students how to design appropriate activities for clients.

Prerequisite: GHU 244

Students will be assigned a day treatment center or group home where they will learn to apply counseling and behavior modification techniques, as well as work with behavioral goals and treatment planning. In class sessions students will discuss their cases. In addition to oral presentations, they will be asked to write a case study based on their fieldwork.

Prerequisite: GHU 240

Basic theories of administration and supervision. Effective organizational models, philosophy, goals, and styles of leadership appropriate for human service agencies and programs.

Prerequisite: GHU 141

A comprehensive experience- based study of administrative techniques and procedures used in planning, staffing, managing and evaluating social services. The administrator's responsibilities to policy-making bodies, agency personnel, and the community.

Prerequisite: GHU 251

This course will take a historical perspective of societal attitudes toward the mentally retarded and disabled person. Topics to be covered include the early treatment of the mentally retarded, early attempts to train and classify the developmentally disabled individual, early attempts at legislation, and the major theorists throughout history. These topics will be explored chronologically, from the earliest attempts to care for the mentally retarded. The course will also include a review of the legal rights protecting the developmentally disabled individual, as well as the growing political clout of the parent and self advocacy movements.

Prerequisite: GHU 140

This course will cover a variety of teaching techniques used with the developmentally disabled population. Included will be a review of behavior modification, social learning theory, gentle teaching and positive behavior supports. Current trends in teaching, including facilitated communication, will be covered with related research. The controversy over mainstreaming will be explored, as well as treatment planning, Individual Education Plan (IEP) and functional education. Adaptive technologies will also be reviewed.

Prerequisite: GHU 140

This course will cover medication administration and the monitoring of medical needs. The health needs of developmentally disabled individuals will be discussed with special emphasis on the needs of those with medical components to their disability. The research pertaining to the linkage of physical attributes and brain damage will be reviewed, as will some of the more uncommon diagnostic categories, e.g., Tourette's Syndrome. Infection control issues will be discussed, as will the prevalence of diseases such as hepatitis and AIDS among the developmentally disabled population.

Prerequisite: GHU 140

This course will introduce students to the policies, politics and programs of an aging society. We will examine the historical, social, economic and demographic issues affecting the elderly. We will also provide and overview of federal, and local legislation and their impact on the elderly. This course will explore the implications of age-based programs such as, Medicare, Social Security and OAA on the "Soon-to-be elderly."

Prerequisite: GHU 141. Co-requisite: GSO 233

This course provides the student with an overview of the importance of assessing community resources and needs, and how the appropriate use of local resources can play a major role in the delivery of meaningful human services. This course will explore how community needs are determined, and how to make the best use of local services. The key role of community based organizations and local community groups will be discussed. The role played by community workers will be explored as well as the one-stop shopping approach to the delivery of human services.

This course will examine the impact of the urban environment on the family, exploring a number of contemporary issues such as crime, poverty, drug addiction, homelessness, urban blight, racism, teenage parenting, etc. It will also examine a series of program models, services or treatment modalities developed to assist families in meeting and resolving these issues and will review the role of the Human Services practitioner as an advocate and resource for families coping with urban life.

Prerequisite: GPS 224

This course will provide both a theoretical and a practical approach to the issues of physical and emotional child abuse and molesting by family members and strangers. It will provide an understanding of the effects of such abuse on the victim as well as the dynamics causing such behavior in the victimizer. Finally it will provide an overview of treatment interventions for the child, parents, and other victimizers. There will be an emphasis on how to develop a network and referral system with social service agencies, hospitals, courts, and child protection services.

Prerequisite: GPS 204

The courses will familiarize students with the practical aspects of working in human services for all populations in need. An overview of social welfare policy in this area will be offered, as well as techniques of needs assessment and information necessary to make referrals.

Prerequisite: GHU 141

Examination of leisure from sociological and psychological points of view with focus on education, recreation, and creative arts as meaningful activities for older adults. Techniques of designing and implementing these programs in various settings for older adults.

Prerequisite: GHU 141

Counseling as an important human service to older adults during times of dependency and crisis. A survey of appropriate counseling approaches, such as individual, group, family, and recreational therapy, as well as working with institutionalized elderly suffering from organic brain syndromes. The role of self-help groups will also be explored.

Prerequisite: GHU 240

This course will focus on the intervening role of the counselor and the techniques and skills necessary for working with children, adolescents, and family members who are experiencing the stress of normal and abnormal growth and change.

Prerequisite: GHU 240

Counseling skills need to be modified when applied to people with developmental disabilities. Many have a limited ability to think abstractly, may have impaired judgment and memory, and often have difficulty generalizing from one situation to another. Counseling therefore needs to have a very concrete and specific orientation. Students learn to apply the general theories and techniques of counseling to their work with people with developmental disabilities. Both individual and group sessions will be discussed. Behavioral therapy will also be considered.

Prerequisite: GHU 244

This course explores the recent development of the innovative functions of case management in human services. It further examines the case manager's role and its importance to effective client services. Issues of assessing clients. needs, brokering for client services and monitoring the quality of services will be discussed.

Prerequisite: GHU 141

This course examines Human Services Administration from a Case Management perspective. It examines the unique social welfare aspects of Case Management Administration Supervision, Staff recruitment, training and program evaluation. Issues of governmental regulation and financial reimbursement are carefully examined. The student will learn how to be self-critical through the examination of his/her own practice in the area of case management administration.

Prerequisite: GHU 326

This course identifies the unique treatment and service delivery issues inherent in working as a case manager with adults and families. The broad range of human services interventions with and for adults and families is examined. The effects of social and psychological stressors such as homelessness, child abuse, domestic violence and disability are explored. The Supportive and entitlement services available to the adult and family population are discussed. The advocacy, brokering and coordination challenge of working with adults sand families is given much attention through the students. critical examination of his/her practice.

Prerequisite: GHU 326

This course provides students with the knowledge, skills and values essential to working with the elderly. The broad range of human service techniques, including those of individual, group and community interventions with and for the elderly is examined. Special emphasis is placed on supportive, supplemental and entitlement services available to the elderly. The brokering, advocacy and coordination challenge of working with the elderly as a human service worker is closely examined in each student's current practice.

Prerequisite: GHU 326

This course provides an in-depth approach to assessing the needs of children, including discussion of the rights and responsibilities that society has towards its children. It will explore the role of case management, advocacy and the process of networking services in the following areas: policy, intervention, family, juvenile justice system, public welfare, guardianship, education, foster care, child labor laws, protective services and adoption.

Prerequisite: GHU 326

This course provides an in-depth multicultural approach to assessing the needs of chemically abusing individuals. It offers comprehensive approach to the case management of addictive behaviors. The student will learn how to network with the judicial system, rehabilitation services and social services supports. The approach will be multicultural in its approach.

Prerequisite: GHU 326

This course covers the role of the case managers in the current service environment, as well as the rights of the developmentally disabled individual in the Home and Community Based Service system (HCBSS). The theory of unbounded services is explored, and the implementation of this philosophy is reviewed. Community access and integration techniques are covered, including fostering choice and goal accomplishment in the developmentally disabled person. Finally, the various living options under the HCBSS waiver systems are reviewed.

Prerequisite: GHU 326

This course introduces students to the physical, mental and spiritual issues relating to the health of the elderly. It examines the trajectory of "able-bodied" and disabled aging. Using the issue of "who pays whom for what," it touches on current health care issues such as "setting limits," ethics, and managed care. This course explores the "advocacy challenge" which affects human service workers in the area of health care for the elderly.

Prerequisite: GHU 321

An exploration of the sociological factors that affect elderly people who are members of minority groups, with special emphasis on the African-American and Hispanic communities. The course focuses on the unique problems of minority aging and centers on service needs, barriers to obtaining services; and appropriate services, delivery systems and support networks in the community.

Prerequisite: GSO 233

This course examines networking and the development of a professional relationship. The course provides the student with an elementary understanding of professional relationships and social support. Additionally, students develop the elementary knowledge and skills in the effective use of networking for building on patients. Students learn how to be self-critical through the examination of their own strengths and practice in the area of relationship development.

Prerequisite: GHU 326

A survey of the tools, techniques, and information necessary to aid in the planning and development of human services programs. Students learn how to evaluate the effectiveness of the programs they will administer in the future.

Prerequisite: GHU 253

See semester bulletin for course title and description. May be repeated for credit.

Under supervision, the student designs and conducts as field work project which provides opportunities to apply classroom learning and gain experiences in his/her selected human services specialization. The field project requires 112 hours of fieldwork in an agency serving a population which is relevant to the specialization selected by the student.

Prerequisite: GHU 141, GHU 326, GPS 110, GSO 121, plus two required courses in the specialization. Department Chair approval is required

This course allows students to expand their skills and knowledge through on-site training in an agency specializing in the area of the student's concentration. Under an agency supervisor, the student learns specific methods of service delivery and networking with related professional and service providers: logging, feedback and dealing with such issues as multicultural staffing and consumerism. To be eligible for the B.S. in Human Services, students are required to complete 112 hours of Field Project II in addition to the 112 hours already completed for Field Project I.

Prerequisite: GHU 441

Introduction to the theory and practice of social work, focusing on the social welfare system; Federal, state, and municipal programs; principles of social psychology as applied to the counseling process; family systems theory.

This course explores the social and medical issues of HIV populations from a cross-cultural perspective. It covers the issues encountered in the correctional, social service and health care systems and teaches students how to assess needs and develop a service network.

As a component of preparing students for clinical practice in an urban, multicultural and diverse environment, the first semester of the one-year (two-semester) foundation HBSE course examines the person-in environment matrix with a specific focus on diversity. This semester will focus on developing understanding of the complex interactions of biological, psychological, spiritual, economic, political, and socio-cultural forces operating at different system levels.

We will examine theory and empirical evidence to provide a multidimensional perspective on these systems. Included in this study is an exploration of contemporary challenges and mechanisms of oppression facing individuals, families, social groups, communities, social networks, formal organizations, and social institutions in a multicultural society.

We will also look at the fundamental ways in which the lifelong development of individuals is shaped by the fact that personal growth occurs within given social-cultural systems and institutions during particular periods of history and by the fact that individuals act back on these social-cultural systems and institutions in a reciprocally influencing manner.

Many theories of person-and-environment exist today, each one spurred by a different ideology or worldview. Applicable theories range from psychodynamic approaches to modern social systems theories, to feminist theories and social constructionism. Focusing on the intersectionality of race, gender and class allows us to critically examine past theoretical frameworks in the context of these newer ideologies. Diversity, social work ethics and values, and the profession’s fundamental interest in promoting social and economic justice and in addressing the needs of populations at risk, underlie much of this understanding.

The application of this HBSE foundation knowledge to the process of assessment in social work will be illustrated. HBSE I contributes to the foundation knowledge necessary for the emerging self-awareness of the student-practitioner. It also lays the groundwork for students to consider the changing configurations of persons and environments across the life course that is the focus of HBSE II.

Social welfare policies and services -- or the lack of them -- affect social work practice at all levels of intervention. How a society understands the nature of social problems, how it assigns responsibility for those problems, and how it defines and allocates different kinds of assistance are fundamentally important to the lives of all its members, especially poor and vulnerable populations. Social policies reflect the outcome of struggles over basic values in our society. They determine how particular groups fare; moreover, they are the basis for the programs which social workers implement.

To be an effective social worker, one must understand the historical determinants of our current social welfare policies, institutions, and service delivery systems. One should be able to critique current social welfare policies and contribute to their reform on the basis of an understanding of recurrent institutional patterns, including systems of oppression. A professional social worker must also have knowledge of the development of the profession, the role of the profession in shaping the institutions and programs intended to foster social functioning, and the profession’s engagement with the populations who utilize social welfare programs and services. The promotion of social justice and human rights is a yardstick against which the social policies, institutions, services, and the profession itself are measured.

SSWN 670 is the first of two courses in a sequence that introduces social policies and service delivery. Students will become familiar with basic issues, concepts, values, terminology, frameworks and ethical issues that define social welfare policy and that influence their ability to work with diverse groups and populations at risk and to think critically. Students will learn about the core policies that comprise our social response to difficulties faced by individuals, families, groups and communities.

We will focus on the following themes:
1. The development of social work as a profession
2. The historic social, economic and philosophical trends which have shaped and
3. The intersection of the role and history of social work and social welfare institutions and policies in defining and reducing social problems.
4. Contemporary and global shifts in social welfare.
This course requires that students be willing and ready to engage in an ongoing, safe, respectful and honest dialogue with each other and their instructor around critical social issues where opinions might differ.

As a component of preparing students for clinical practice in an urban, multicultural and diverse environment, the second semester of the one-year (two-semester) foundation HBSE course examines the person-in environment matrix with a specific focus on diversity. This semester will focus on developing understanding of the complex interactions of biological, psychological, spiritual, economic, political, and socio-cultural forces operating at different system levels. We will examine theory and empirical evidence to provide a multidimensional perspective on these systems. Included in this study is an exploration of contemporary challenges and mechanisms of oppression facing individuals, families, social groups, communities, social networks, formal organizations, and social institutions in a multicultural society.

We will also look at the fundamental ways in which the lifelong development of individuals is shaped by the fact that personal growth occurs within given social-cultural systems and institutions during particular periods of history and by the fact that individuals act back on these social-cultural systems and institutions in a reciprocally influencing manner.

Many theories of person-and-environment exist today, each one spurred by a different ideology or worldview. Applicable theories range from psychodynamic approaches to modern social systems theories, to feminist theories and social constructionism. Focusing on the intersectionality of race, gender and class allows us to critically examine past theoretical frameworks in the context of these newer ideologies. Diversity, social work ethics and values, and the profession’s fundamental interest in promoting social and economic justice and in addressing the needs of populations at risk, underlie much of this understanding.

HBSE II considers the changing configurations of persons and environments across the life course.

SSWN 671 is the second social policy and service delivery course in a sequence of two courses. During the first course (SSWN 670) students were taught how to develop and articulate an understanding of the interaction of five key social forces-ideology, politics, history, economics, and social movements- to create and to change the social welfare system. This course, which has a contemporary focus, further enhances the student's ability to analyze, and design social policies based on an understanding of the factors that contribute to the existence of contemporary social problems.

SSWN 671 familiarizes the students with existing social policies, deepens their understanding of the conditions of socially and economically disadvantaged groups in our society, discusses the role of Social Work’s Code of Ethics in social policy and further sensitizes them to the political factors that contribute to the definition of social problems and the agenda for government intervention. It provides a core of knowledge and theoretical understanding that will encourage and develop the capacity for independent analysis of current social problems and social policy issues and for informed social action. Consistent with our professional social work values, this course helps students build knowledge and skills that social workers need in order to analyze, and make changes in, social welfare policy and program with the overall purpose of enhancing social well-being. The professional values of justice and equity guide this work which work in tandem with the values of our profession.

The social welfare policies of a society represent and define how that society fundamentally understands social phenomena and collective human behavior. From these understandings emerge "social constructions of social realities", or definitions of what and how social processes and factors contribute to social problems. Society's responses to these problems are also socially constructed, which is to say that public and private responses are not necessarily objective or derived from a formula. Rather they are developed through a series of political processes. This course emphasizes the theme that social welfare policies are a response to socially defined problems. The course stresses the importance of understanding cultural values and various uses of power in determining policy outcomes. The student will also explore dominant strains of American political and economic thought that underpin various understandings of social phenomena and social policy responses within the United States. Frameworks for policy analysis utilized in this course are guided by social work values of opportunity, social justice, and equitable distribution of finite resources.

This course is designed to familiarize the student with the major social policies currently in effect and proposals to revise them. In addition, the course will develop the student’s capacity to analyze current policies and programs and their outcomes for clients and other members of vulnerable populations. These skills and understandings will enable the student to become knowledgeable critics and formulators of improved social welfare programs at the local, state, and national level.

The major organizing themes of the course are:
the divisions among Americans based on income, race, ethnicity and gender;
the relationship between social constructions of the problems of the disadvantaged and the "realities" of their conditions; and
collective efforts to close the gaps in income, human rights, and general well-being that sustain those divisions.
The impact of social welfare policies, both current and past, on clients, agencies, service delivery your social work practice and values.

The social policy course is practice centered in keeping with our school’s overarching commitment to a practice centered curriculum. This course helps students develop secondary research and writing skills similar to those that they will use in practice as they analyze social problems; strengths and capacities; social welfare policies and programs; and alternative policy and program responses for enhancing social well-being. Students also develop skills in clearly and concisely communicating their social welfare policy and program analyses with professional colleagues and with the larger community. This course focuses especially on helping students build practice skills for developing, implementing, and evaluating social welfare policies and programs that serve to value diversity, advocate for populations at risk, ending oppression and discrimination, and promoting social and economic justice. Finally, students learn the additional policy practice skills of organizing and advocating for positive change. Learning social welfare policy requires that students be willing and ready to engage in an ongoing, safe, respectful and honest dialogue with each other and their instructor around the issues presented.