Study of special populations, settings, and/or problems encountered by social workers and other human service professionals, and interventions and skills for dealing with them. May be repeated as content varies by title.

Foundation for beginning health professions students to gain an understanding of the complexities of the health care system through experiential activities conducted in interprofessional teams and the importance of interprofessional collaboration in order to improve the system.

Approaches for prevention of childhood obesity, using perspectives from public health, social work, exercise science, pharmacy, medicine, and behavioral nutrition. Training to teach diet/physical activity lessons in elementary school settings.

Bridge course designed to prepare newly enrolled Advanced Standing MSW students for their Advanced Practice year of study for the MSW program. Students must hold a BSW from a CSWE- accredited BSW program and be admitted to the University of South Carolina Graduate School and the College of Social Work’s Master’s Program as an Advanced Standing Student.

Prepare students to write effectively for professional practice in social work.

This seminar is part of a collaborative school social work/law enforcement practicum immersion study. Permission of the instructor and concurrent enrollment in an instructor-approved field practicum is required.

This course provides students with foundational knowledge for leading and managing nonprofit or nongovernmental organizations. The student will learn about governance, human resources, financial management, marketing, and planning and evaluation. In this class, the student will use theory to understand effective organizational practices in a modern era. This course counts as a practice elective.

Social work practice with families, parents, and couples, focused on family interventions and family therapy with culturally diverse and vulnerable family populations. This course counts as a practice elective.

Integration of trauma into practice with children, youth, and families to recognize its prevalence, realize its impact, and respond sensitively and competently.

Integration of trauma into practice with adults and older adults to recognize its prevalence, realize its impact, and respond sensitively and competently.

Designed to focus on trauma-informed, trauma responsive, and culturally sensitive engagement, assessment, intervention, and advocacy regarding collective experiences of trauma such as natural and environmental disasters, mass shootings, community violence, and war.

Study of institutions, communities, and organizations as social systems relevant to social work practice.

Diversity, strengths, needs, and responses of oppressed populations from a social justice perspective, with emphasis on experiential learning and implications for social work practice at all system levels.

A systems approach is used to study the family and individual development. Cultural and structural variability are emphasized.

Integration and application of social work theories, skills, and values in preparation for the transition to professional practice.

Methods of social work intervention with individuals, families and groups within the social environment.

Advanced study of social work intervention with groups, including treatment, educational, self-help and mutual aid. This course qualifies as a Practice Elective.

An in-depth study of modalities for overseeing the delivery of direct services in social agencies. This course qualifies as a Practice Elective.

Examination of school social work services from a multi-level, ecological approach including the community, the school, the family, and the students. This course qualifies as a Practice Elective.

Practice of social work case management with a special emphasis on case management for vulnerable populations. This course qualifies as a Practice Elective.

Knowledge and skills for practice with cognitive behavior therapies. This course qualifies as a Practice Elective.

Integration and infusion of meaning of trauma into one’s practice so as to recognize its prevalence, realize its impact, and respond sensitively and competently. This course qualifies as a Practice Elective.

Motivational interviewing strategies and advanced practice competencies within in a variety of social work practice settings. This course qualifies as a Practice Elective.

Social work practice in organizations and communities, especially skills in problem identification and solving.

Advanced social work practice with individuals focused on engagement, assessment, intervention planning and implementation, and practice evaluation for diverse clients.

Foundation knowledge for practice with military and their families including information about military culture, values. An overview of military knowledge and history essential for working with this population, information about problems unique to the military, and the identification of treatment and community resources.

Designed to provide state-of-the-art information about problems and disorders encounter by veterans and military personnel, including information about the signature injuries associated with current and past conflicts, as well as information about problems encountered in family life.

Knowledge about intervention strategies with military members, veterans of the military and their families, including important knowledge to help social workers interface effectively with other medical and behavioral health professionals.

This course provides a framework for understanding social work and social justice issues with an emphasis on vulnerable populations in the areas of survival, protection, and promotion of human rights in China, India, the Middle East, Africa, and Central and South America.

Analysis of social welfare policies, including their development, implementation, and evaluation.

This course examines immigration policy in the contemporary U.S. context. It explores current policy debates in light migration research and theory, and aims to address the following questions: Why do people migrate? How do they adapt once they arrive? How does immigration impact receiving societies?

Planning and program development through grant writing that can be generalized to any setting and relevant to social, community, and economic development as well as other areas of social work practice.

Course develops skills for effective social work practice within dynamic and multifaceted mental health settings. Substantive areas include role play, research informed practice and practice informed research, and reflective/reflexive practice. The primary goal is to produce practitioners capable of influencing mental health related practice paradigms, programs, services, interventions, and policies. This course qualifies as a Practice Elective.

This course introduces students to crisis theory and intervention models for response to a variety of individual, family, and community crises. This course focuses on crisis theories, the tasks associated with crisis care, methods of intervention and the responses to specific crises.

Examines theories of practice and parenting interventions with strong empirical evidence for supporting positive youth development and preventing or ameliorating child and adolescent social, emotional, and behavioral challenges among diverse youth and parents.

Students are introduced to the unique dynamics of substance use among adolescent populations. Students gain foundational knowledge about adolescent development, substance use trends and prevalence among adolescent populations. Risk and protective factors are explored that impact adolescent substance use, and systems of care for this unique group.

Knowledge and skills for substance abuse treatment for clients from diverse backgrounds with a focus on empirically based methods from a social work practice. This course qualifies as a Practice Elective.

Advanced social work practice with organizations, including advanced knowledge, skills, values, and theories to engage, assess, intervention, and evaluation organizations.

Explores values, addresses psychosocial issues and examines assessment and intervention tools important for practice with persons with disabilities, their families and the community.

An examination of the dynamics of substance abuse and addictions including classification of drugs, models of addiction, etiology, assessment and diagnosis and evidence-based treatment practices. Family dynamics, special populations (e.g., women, African Americans, Military), and process addictions (e.g., gambling, sexual addiction, eating disorders) are also covered.

This course introduces students to etiology, assessment, and diagnosis of child and adolescent mental health within the social work person-in-environment framework to understand the critical biopsychosocial influences on incidence and manifestation of the most commonly presented disorders and the differential effect of these factors on diverse and at-risk populations.

This course introduces students to etiology, assessment, and diagnosis of adult and older adult mental health within the social work person-in-environment framework to understand the critical biopsychosocial influences on incidence and manifestation of the most commonly presented disorders and the differential effect of these factors on diverse and at-risk populations.

Losses encountered throughout the life cycle, normal and pathological grieving, and intervention techniques.

For advanced graduate students.

Sexuality in the context of social functioning and its relationship to problems encountered by social work practitioners. Emphasis on problems of sexual oppression.

Advanced generalist social work practice with diverse family systems across the life span, focused on engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation processes.

An in-depth study of selected issues, social concerns, and application of behavioral implications for practice. May be repeated as content varies by title.

Current knowledge about child abuse and neglect, including typologies, etiology, effects, and current practice interventions.

Introduction to gerontology from the fields of demography, psychology, sociology, social welfare, and economics.

Examination of the policy/planning issues relating to older adults, including current trends in services, base for social service development, and evaluation of services for older adults.

Advanced social work practice with treatment and task groups, with a focus on engagement, assessment, intervention, evaluation, and policy practice.

Advanced generalist social work practice on a community system-level with a focus on engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation.

A theoretical background for specialized advanced social work practice incorporating social and behavioral science as a framework for analyzing evidence-based approaches for social work interventions.

Overview of the structure and functions of programs, policies, and systems in a specialized area of practice, including the history of policy development, the current policy environment, and the role of social workers and the social work profession in shaping and implementing policy in this area.

Advanced direct practice in a specialized area with a focus on engagement, assessment, intervention planning and implementation, and practice evaluation for diverse client systems at multiple levels. Instructor permission required for non-MSW program students.

An agency-based study of the community social welfare system and the social agency's place in delivery of services; a beginning involvement in agency practice.

An agency-based study of the community social welfare system and the social agency's place in delivery of services; a beginning involvement in agency practice.

The third unit of field instruction is designed to support students’ integration of knowledge learned while taking advanced year practice courses. This is a pass or fail course.

The fourth unit of field instruction is designed to support students’ integration of knowledge learned while taking advanced year practice courses. This is a pass or fail course.

Examination of social work research contexts, designs, and strategies.

Examines measurement tools, evaluation designs, and advanced practice skills that can be used to evaluate social work practice with clients.

Examines methods that can be used to evaluate social work programs, policies, and practice.

Examines across disciplines the theoretical and empirical foundations for social welfare and social work in historical, economic, social, and political contexts prior to the 20th century.

Examines across disciplines the theoretical and empirical foundations of social welfare and social work in historical, economic, social, and political contexts from the early 20th century to the present.

Examines the process of developing theory-based welfare and social work scholarship from a variety of research approaches, focusing on conceptual model-building.

Examines the theoretical and empirical foundations of the profession of social work in historical, economic, social, and political contexts from the early 20th century to the present.

Introduces the concept of theory and its relation to empirical investigation. Introduces middle range social science theories widely used for research in social work and social welfare.

Overview of a range of approaches to understanding what we can know as social scientists (ontology) and how we can know it (epistemology), and a deep dive into how these approaches play out in 1) understandings of scientific inquiry and core methodological concepts, 2) qualitative and quantitative methodological choices, and 3) the researcher’s role and positionality in advancing change-oriented knowledge claims.

Step-by-step approach to conducting a systematic review of scientific literature and summarizing findings in the format of a journal manuscript for potential publication.

Foundations of qualitative methods in social research with emphasis on intensive interviewing and grounded theory.

Advanced study to evaluate and design measurement and instrumentation in social work research. Restricted to social work doctoral students.

Doctoral-level course covering conceptual foundations and key processes and skills of community-engaged research for understanding and promoting social welfare and social change. Emphasis on engagement with community, collaboration, challenges, and ethics. Assignments include practical community-engaged research experience.

Examines theoretical and practical foundations of providing leadership for social change through organizations, communities, public policies, and social norms.

Examines issues related to making a successful transition from doctoral student to professional social work scholar. May be repeated for credit.

A wide range of supervised classroom, field, and other learning experiences designed to prepare the student for work as a social work educator.

Students acquire practical research experience, based on an individualized learning contract, under the supervision of a faculty member.

Approaches to the organization, analysis, interpretation, and utilization of data sets available from social agency records or from existing empirical research.

Analysis of complex data sets from social services agencies and other research sources.

Advanced study of research methods commonly employed in the development of knowledge for social work practice and education. Critique of published social work research using a standardized critique model.

A seminar designed to provide intensive faculty supervision and peer consultation to the doctoral student in the preparation of the dissertation proposal. Repeatable- 2 credits required for the doctoral program.

Prerequisite: SOWK 894.