SWK4641H – Special Topics in Social Work in Gerontology: Aging and Health

This seminar provides an opportunity for incoming students to orient themselves to the PhD program. The seminar is organized as a series of informal presentations and discussions, where participants have an opportunity to ask other doctoral students and faculty about their research, available resources, networks and procedures.

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This course will introduce students to the practice model, core concepts and skills of Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) in order to enhance clinical social work practice. EFT is an experiential and systemic model that focuses on emotions and interpersonal difficulties as markers of attachment needs. This course will review the theoretical frameworks, stages and steps of the model and apply them to a diverse range of client issues and populations. We will focus on conceptual issues such as the therapeutic relationship, and core interventions such as enactments and two-chair/empty-chair dialogues in order to identify and transform emotions and negative interactive cycles. Students will have the opportunity to examine the stages and steps of EFT with individuals, couples and families with complex needs. This course requires active class participation through small and large group discussion, class exercises, role-plays and simulation-based learning.

Elder Abuse and Neglect

Elder mistreatment is increasingly recognized as a public health crisis and represents a critical social work problem. This course will cover the major types of elder mistreatment including emotional, physical and sexual abuse, financial exploitation, and neglect, which occur in both community or long-term care institutional settings. Students will learn how to conceptualize elder abuse/neglect and become familiar with key theoretical underpinnings. They will learn basic elder abuse/neglect knowledge such as problem scope, risk factors, and consequences. We will consider elder mistreatment from diverse cultural perspectives and integrate dynamics related to age, gender, ability, and socio-economic status to understand this complex problem. Students will learn about elder abuse/neglect case investigation, assessment, safety planning and intervention, as well as gain an understanding of how cases are currently handled in the Canadian context.

This course focuses on the concept of ‘story’: what are the stories individuals, communities, agencies, power structures, and policies tell? How do these stories empower or disempower? Limit or expand? Congruent with the FIFSW’s mission, this course will empower you to help your current and future clients disrupt limiting narratives and create healing stories in their place. Building on empirical research, clinical demonstrations, your prior coursework, and your own clinical and lived experience, you will learn how to use narrative therapy to address social inequities.

The knowledge and assistance of social workers in law is linked to many aspects of social work practice. Rarely does an individual client, family, or group share problems that are purely social, emotional or legal. The need for social work assistance comes at crisis points within the human life cycle. These crises could include divorce or separation, death, physical or mental abuse, injury, illness, incapacity to make decisions, threat of eviction, wrongful dismissal, arrest, trial, and incarceration. Individuals in these situations often need emergency planning and special resources. During these times, social workers become engaged in the practice of social law. Social workers involved in the legal system should develop a strong sense of professional identity because the values and ethics of the legal and social work professions differ and may conflict with each other. With a clear understanding of the different philosophies, methods, and goals within the legal system, social workers may assist their clients involved in the legal system.

This is an intensive elective course and requires students to keep at pace with course expectations. This course will provide students with knowledge and resources to critically examine public policy and social issues confronting Indigenous Peoples in Canada. Students will examine experiences with colonialism, oppression and self-determination, as well as historical and contemporary impacts of Canadian policies and legislation. Topics include the Indian Residential School System, child welfare, justice system, intergenerational trauma, Indigenous worldviews and research methods, healing and reconciliation.

This course focuses on social policy research, debates and analysis. Topics covered will include inequality, urban poverty, social welfare, immigration, race/racism, gender and sexuality, Indigenous reconciliation, crime, health, and climate change. Synchronous online seminars will be supplemented by asynchronous lectures, clips and participation in online discussion threads. Students will complete a group presentation, reflection paper or policy briefing note, and a final research paper or briefing book on a social policy topic.

This course looks at the transmission of trauma from cultural, communal, familial and individual perspectives. Students critically examine the impact of generational trauma on historical and current risk factors in communities and gain understanding of the importance of resiliency factors in preventing the transmission of generational trauma.

Our policy is that after the first week of classes the first year sections are set. We do not allow switches unless there are major extenuating circumstances.

This course provides a comprehensive overview of the development of social policy and debates around its implication in the Canadian context, including references to social welfare policies, economic policies, education, healthcare, housing, labour, and community development, among other important policy areas of focus. Through this overview, the course aims to provide important tools for social work practitioners, including a strong background in social policy context and trends, as well as resources to strategize, mobilize, and advocate for policies and programs to help improve the quality of life and reduce hardships of vulnerable and marginalized populations. The course primarily focuses on Canada – and Ontario specifically – yet materials will also draw from differences in policies across provinces/territories and cross-nationally. The course concludes with a focus on implications of social policy for practice, organizing to affect change and improve social policy, and recommendations for advocacy in the field.

Companion course to SWK4105H Social Work Practice Laboratory. Students will be in the same section, with the same instructor for both SWK4103H and SWK4105H.

The goal of this course is to provide students with core concepts used in direct social work practice with client systems. An ecological/systems perspective of person-in-environment is used to anchor generic concepts for a range of practice situations. The course will provide the opportunity to integrate social work theory and practice informed by research. The course will also provide students with the opportunity to be exposed to social work practice with diverse populations across the life cycle. This will occur through readings, class discussion, lecture, site visits and presentations by community colleagues. There is a particular focus on beginning work with clients, including the key components of developing a relationship and assessment.

Our policy is that after the first week of classes the first year sections are set. We do not allow switches unless there are major extenuating circumstances.

SWK4103H Elements of Social Work Practice and SWK4105H Social Work Practice Laboratory are required courses in the first term of our two-year M.S.W. Full-Time Program. These companion courses provide students with basic preparation for professional social work practice and are specifically designed to support students’ transition to their field practicum. Students will be in the same section, with the same instructor for both SWK4103H and SWK4105H.

Students are required to successfully complete SWK4105H before being permitted to attend SWK4701H Practicum I.

Companion course to SWK4103H Elements of Social Work Practice. Students will be in the same section, with the same instructor for both SWK4103H and SWK4105H.

The Practice Laboratory is a companion course to the Elements of Social Work Practice and concepts studied in that course will be applied through practice simulations. This course aims to link and apply theory and research to social work practice as students master generic interviewing and communication competencies with a focus on relationship building and assessment with a diverse range of clients. SWK4105H is also designed to develop professional competencies including the ability to critically self-reflect and work productively in a collegial group. This course is preparatory to the field practicum in second term of year one. Emphasis is given to developing a positive learning environment based on mutual support and respect.

This course provides an overview of social work ethics as defined by the Canadian Association for Social Work and their integration/intersection with indigenous ethical principles in the community context. The course will address practice ethics in both historical and contemporary context, drawing on examples from Canadian and international social work practice.

Our policy is that after the first week of classes the first year sections are set. We do not allow switches unless there are major extenuating circumstances.

This course critically engages with the knowledge, theories and values that constitute the foundation of the social work profession and inform its practice. This foundation has incorporated elements drawn from different disciplines and diverse knowledge bases. The process of integration and subsequent transformation is ongoing and ultimately contributes to developing a theoretical and value base needed to conduct professional, ethical, competent, evidence-based social work. We believe that social work is informed by multiple intersecting theories. A range of theories and approaches will be considered and students will learn to examine the various kinds of knowledge use in social work. The frameworks covered wifll span: intra-personal, interpersonal, environmental and social/ structural theories. Analyses of the strengths, limitations and relevancy of these frameworks will be conducted and contextualized with regard to the intersecting diversities found in Canadian society.

This course examines the dynamics of sexual abuse in the family and explores why abuse, if not healed, increases in subsequent generations. The course also examines types and typologies of perpetrators of sexual assault and child sexual abuse as well as the aetiologies of sexually deviant behaviours. Learners explore strategies for assessment and treatment of offenders and victims of sexual violence.

This course explores the sequential development of the brain and how trauma impacts that development. Learners are provided with an overview of normal development from birth to adulthood as well as development impacted by complex trauma. Learners will be exposed to methods used with children and adults that can assist in trauma integration.

This course examines the developmental, neurological and familial roots of addictions. Learners explore factors that influence the development of an addicted brain, the biology of addiction and the trauma-addiction cycle. Students critically examine resiliency factors and strategies for prevention, intervention, and healing in individuals, families and communities, particularly in indigenous contexts.

This course explores the importance of early intervention with children experiencing complex trauma in schools and care-giving systems and offers steps for effective trauma-informed and strength-based community intervention from the first phone call to the completion of follow-up action plans with the community. Additionally, learners will explore the elements of ritual and ceremony, the moral values and principles embodied in each, as well as the ethical foundation of delivery and the responsibility of those conducting them. Significance will be paid to the importance that ceremony can play in assisting individuals, families and communities to heal from grief and trauma.

Empowerment is a theory and principle deeply ingrained in social work. However, today, many people may associate empowerment with the structural force of neoliberal self-responsibilization, wherein individuals are compelled to shoulder the responsibility of extricating themselves from oppressive situations independently. Contrary to this perception, the concept of empowerment was initially championed in the 1970s by Paulo Freire, a Brazilian adult educator, to combat systemic oppression through literacy movements and mass mobilization.

In this course, our focus will be on the following areas:

1. Learning from empowerment theory, practice, and research in popular education, social work, community psychology, and other related fields, both historically and in contemporary contexts.
2. Drawing inspiration from feminist, anti-oppressive practice, anti-racism, anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism, and disability justice works to critique, enhance and support contemporary empowerment theory and practices (e.g., Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Billie Allan & Rhonda Hackett, Sara Ahmed, adrienne maree brown, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha).
3. Peer-led learning experience on the areas of choice that would consider different ways of expressing and conveying ideas. The final assignment can be an arts-based project or a more traditional writing-based project. In the past, class members have created a digital story, garment, painting, music, poetry, and many others.
4. Engaging in a series of peer-to-peer simulations using Forum Theatre (from the Theatre of the Oppressed/ August Boal) to examine strategies for addressing racism and other oppressive situations experienced in our own lives and practice settings. Racism and various forms of oppression encountered by workers within social service organizations may not be readily identified and addressed. Forum Theatre encourages exploration rather than providing definitive solutions to oppressive situations and conditions, serving as a rehearsal space for individual, organizational, community, and social change.

Throughout the course, class members are constituted as co-learners and co-teachers within the learning community.  The assigned “readings” will include videos, podcasts, and popular writings, in addition to academic journal articles and book chapters. Class members are encouraged to bring in examples of inspiring practice, activism, and social movements that are relevant to the concepts we are learning.

In this course, students will critically analyze the contradictions of globalization and transnationalism as experienced locally, and explore ways in which social workers and other service providers can respond effectively to these forces using different policy tools and strategies. The course encourages students to consider policy as a negotiated practice where social workers, clients, communities and other stakeholders take up a range of practices to create, resist, influence and enact social policies.

Students will investigate different approaches to policy practice including activism, community building, ally work in addition to more conventional approaches like policy brief writing and lobbying. We will address key concepts related to globalization, transnationalism, local/global sites, and legacies of colonialism. Students will investigate examples and possibilities of local, international and transnational policy practice and community mobilization to work against/with/around globalization. Labour systems (including gendered, racialised nature of care work), human rights struggles, indigenous rights, and immigration and citizenship serve as investigative sites for developing this critical policy practice.

The course will employ activities that foster reflexive analysis of students’ subjective positions while identifying strategies to address complex issues facing social work policy practice in today’s globalised world.

As a core value in social work, this course examines epistemological and theoretical approaches to understanding social justice as they relate to social exclusion, marginalization, inequity, and oppression.

Through a framework of intersectionality, we will address interconnected social processes and conditions associated with: imperialism and colonization; poverty and classism; racism and whiteness; citizenship and statelessness; multiculturalism and nationalism; anti-Semitism and Islamophobia; sexism, heterosexism and homophobia; and ableism and disability.

This course will link personal knowledge with collective historical and institutional knowledges towards informing anti-oppression and decolonizing social work. Students will also explore how strategies for redressing various processes of injustice vary across socio-political contexts. Attention will be paid to how concepts can be engaged with, re-imagined, and inform/instill/incite the work of resistance and activism in social work.

(Approved elective course for Collaborative Program in Women’s Studies)

The goal of the course is to develop a critical analysis of how social policies reflect dominant understanding of women in Canadian society. Current feminist thought on diversity and policy models will inform a discussion of programs that have been put in place to address “women’s issues”. The implications of these critiques for future policy directions in various substantive areas are considered.

This course examines Canadian mental health and health policy and services with a particular emphasis on Ontario. It also reviews cross-national comparisons to identify similarities and differences in the development of mental health and health policy and services. The course is based on the assumption that social workers in mental health and health settings should be able to participate in the assessment and modification of conditions that affect mental health and health by intervening with individuals and families, and assisting in the development of relevant and effective programs and service systems for mental and physical illness.

This course will explore the social, ethical and philosophical impact of ethno-specific community care from one particular group within the context of the Canadian multicultural mosaic. It will provide perspectives on social action and social justice in the areas of settlement, anti-oppression, spirituality, social welfare, diversity, ethno-specific agencies and community development. Jewish traditions and culture have a long history of addressing issues related to caring for others, at the individual and the collective, community and societal levels. The course will provide opportunities for students, both Jewish and non-Jewish, to learn about the culture and traditions of caring that are central throughout Jewish history and will examine where the current and historical Jewish experience, may be relevant to other minority groups in a diverse society. Resource persons representing the breadth of Toronto’s Jewish academic, social and communal services will address practice related contemporary and historical issues relevant to social work’s current pluralistic orientation. The course will contribute a new perspective – that of one minority community – to the Faculty’s range of diversity-related learning opportunities.

All human rights violations are acts which disregard human dignity and the rule of law. Human rights, particularly economic, social and cultural rights, are not understood very well and many are not widely recognized, let alone achieved. In addition, as the 1997 Annual Report of the Canadian Human Rights Commission notes, a significant gap persists between the rights that have been won in law and the reality of people’s day-to-day lives. Professionals have an obligation to not only recognize and respect the rights of their clients but to fully understand the nature of their rights and to help promote their realization. Advocates and activists can use a human rights framework as one means of helping to achieve social change for greater social justice.

This course is focused on the relationship between social welfare issues and Canada’s human rights obligations. The questions addressed include: Do Canadians have the right to an adequate standard of living? What does this mean? What are ‘economic, social and cultural rights’? Where do they come from? How, if at all, are they different from civil and political rights? Can progress in achieving greater social justice be made by advocating the implementation of the right to an adequate standard of living? Having signed all key human rights treaties, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, what are Canada’s obligations; what monitoring and enforcement mechanisms are available?

This course examines a broad range of social issues associated with Canada’s housing system. The focus is on the social policy implications of the problems lower income households and specific groups within the population (based on gender, ‘race’ and/or socio-economic status) have in accessing affordable appropriate housing in good quality neighbourhoods. The gender, ‘race’ and ethnicity aspects of housing issues are a particular focus and permeate all sessions. A particular theme throughout this course is Canada’s rental housing sector, which houses one third of all Canada’s households (and half of the City of Toronto’s households). This course also focuses on the growing number of people who are unhoused. People who are homeless require housing, some require support services (for physical or mental health problems, or addictions) and all require enough money to live on (jobs, job training, or social assistance). What do we mean by the term ‘homelessness’? What is the difference between the ‘old’ (pre-1980s) and the ‘new’ homelessness? Who is homeless, why, and for how long? What should be done about it? How do we prevent and eventually eliminate mass homelessness?

Formerly titled Leadership Skills in Social Service Organizations

This course focuses on the skills needed by senior managers and administrations to take effective leadership within the organization and outside the organization. It is designed to develop leaders with vision, values and strong skills in stakeholder relations. Key areas covered will include: understanding leadership; ethics and leadership; working with Boards of Directors/governance; stakeholder relations including relations with funders; transparency/public accountability; public engagement; strategic planning/social entrepreneurship; fundraising strategies for marginalized populations; developing alliances/collaboration; core values that determine the shape and function of organizations; processes of social exclusion and marginalization; achieving diversity among staff and management reflective of the diversity of the agency’s clients; creating a physical environment that is accessible to diverse community members; culturally competent service delivery.

Formerly titled Financial Management of Social Service Organizations

Leaders of organizations of any size need to be able to understand and manage the finances of the agency. This course is designed to ensure that students acquire comprehensive skills in financial management and can apply those skills to ensure the financial health of their agency. Topics will include: management accounting; budgeting and forecasting; funding contracts; risk management; grantsmanship; fundraising.

Formerly titled Human Resource Management in Social Service Organizations

The greatest asset of a social service organization is its staff, and the greatest potential liability for such organizations relates to difficulties in management of staff. Administrators need to know how to attract and keep the best people, and how to protect their organization from liability relating to employment matters. This course will cover key areas in human resource management such as: comparison of unionized and non-unionized environments; hiring: writing job descriptions, attracting diverse candidates, best practices for candidate selection; orientation, training and development; performance management; termination; volunteer recruitment and management.

The focus of study in the first module will be experimental designs. These designs are best used in confirmatory research studies where the area under study is well developed, there are several theories to guide the research and testable hypotheses can be formulated. These designs attempt to establish causal relationships between the social work intervention and outcome. The second module focuses on survey methods, sampling and statistical analysis. Surveys are a commonly used research design to assess the prevalence of problems, needs in a community or a client population, utilization patterns and consumer satisfaction. Sampling and statistical techniques relevant to both surveys and experimental design will also be covered. The statistical techniques will be taught on a more conceptual rather than numerically intensive basis.

This course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to understand and apply methods of quantitative analysis to social work research topics. Several major statistical techniques will be presented including chi-squares, t-tests, one-way ANOVAs (analysis of variance), correlation, simple regression and some non-parametric tests. Students will gain knowledge of the SPSS computer software program through weekly hands-on assignments applying these statistical techniques to a secondary data set. Using this data set, the final research project will entail the use of descriptive and inferential statistics to comprehensively analyze and interpret their selected research topic.

SWK4510H is a prerequisite for all second year required courses – students in the Two-Year MSW Program take this course in the first year of the Two-Year Program. Students in the One-Year MSW Program with Advanced Standing take this course in the first term of their program.

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Our policy is that after the first week of classes the first year sections are set. We do not allow switches unless there are major extenuating circumstances.

Evidence-Based Social Work Practice (EBSWP) is a systematic approach to making decisions that emphasizes (1) formulating answerable questions, (2) locating, critically appraising, and interpreting the relevant research evidence, (3) applying best available evidence in consultation with clients, and (4) evaluating the intervention. Using a problem-based learning model, students evaluate and interpret the best available evidence relating to several social work policy and practice questions. Supported by a series of research methods tutorials, students develop an understanding of quantitative and qualitative research designs and methods appropriate for answering policy and practice questions. In appraising the evidence and crafting solutions to questions, students will examine the data from a scientific viewpoint and will also consider the extent to which the research findings can be applied to diverse populations. It is also important to note that the evidence-based practice framework that is used within the course considers cultural sensitivity and attunement. 

The course builds on the foundation research course in facilitating the application of research knowledge and skills to the design of a social work research project in health and mental health. It builds on practice and policy courses and practicum experience in enabling the application of field experience and knowledge to the design and evaluation of social work research. A central component of the course will comprise integration of research, theory and practice. The goal is to give students the opportunity to integrate the knowledge and skills from previous courses and their practicum experiences to produce a social work research proposal in the area of health and mental health.

This course explores the role of the researcher in promoting social justice and diversity in social work practice and explores models of research with, rather than on communities. Learners will become familiar with methodologies that are developed to challenge the social inequalities underlying the production and dissemination of knowledge.

The course is based upon critical theory premises, which deconstruct notions of a unitary truth that can be known by one method. While critical theory is diverse and comes with many debates within, for the purposes of this course, the goal of research is ultimately positioned to be a means of challenging and changing the inequities around them through understanding human conditions.

The course will draw on insights from disciplines such as Women’s Studies, Ethnic Studies, Aboriginal Studies, Critical Race Theory, Disability Studies, and LGBT Studies in examining the dynamics of race, gender, power, social change and their intersectionalities in the research process. Central to this course are methodologies that seek to redress power dynamics between researcher and those being “researched”. We will examine the strengths and challenges of Participatory Action Research, Community-Based Research, Feminist Research, and Anti-Oppressive Research. We will also explore questions that arise when we utilize interviews, focus groups, participant observation and arts-based methods in the context of community-based, anti-oppressive research.

During the course, learners will have the opportunity to design their own research project that reflects perspectives from anti-oppressive perspectives.

With the growing emphasis on evidence-based social work practice, gerontological social work practitioners need reliable and unbiased summaries of the effectiveness of a wide range of therapeutic and policy interventions. In contrast to more traditional literature reviews, systematic reviews follow a rigorous scientific methodology to minimize bias in article selection and in the interpretation of findings. The major purpose of this course is to provide students with the skills to develop a systematic literature review of the effectiveness of a social work intervention with an older population. This class builds on the skills learned in SWK4510H. The systematic reviews will be conducted in groups.

This course focuses on the application of research methods to understand and to evaluate practice with Children and their Families (CTF). It builds on the first-year course, SWK4510H Research for Evidence-Based Practice through utilizing an evidence-based approach to explore issues relevant to CTF and to identify best practices. Emphasis will be placed on research and evaluation approaches that are commonly applied in child and family settings. These include exploring program logic and program evaluation models, identifying, constructing, critiquing and utilizing outcomes in CTF practice. Single system evaluation of practice, quality assurance and improvement models will also be explored. Students will be expected to demonstrate how one or more of these approaches help them to identify effective interventions within CTF practice. It is hoped that students will be able to use some of the issues identified in the companion course, Contemporary Issues in Working with Children and their Families, as a context for demonstrating how these research and evaluation models can address effectiveness issues.

The MSW-ITR Practicum is a requirement for students without a BSW degree. Building on the direct practicum skills that students have developed through previous experience, this practicum emphasizes social work practice in a community and/or organizational setting where global indigenous and/or trauma-informed perspectives can be applied to service provision or community-driven research. Students are assigned to an approved practicum site and field instructor, and undertake a process of evaluating community needs, selecting a focus for the practicum in collaboration with the field instructor, and implementing a project. The project should include engagement with one or more of the following stakeholder groups: clients, service providers, traditional healers, knowledge holders, researchers, and health, social, or community organizations. Participation and outcomes in the practicum are evaluated in terms of their adherence to both social work and Indigenous principles students have learned in the first year of study. Potential activities for the practicum could include: community or program needs assessment; collaboration in established knowledge-building activities; community outreach; community activism; original research; archiving; etc.

This course draws on indigenous, anti-oppressive and critical theories as the context for emerging methodologies for respectful, culturally-appropriate and community-relevant research in indigenous and other contexts.

Our policy is that after the first week of classes the first year sections are set. We do not allow switches unless there are major extenuating circumstances.

Knowledge of the theoretical foundation and practice skills for working with groups in social work is a widely useful component of graduate level social work education. The application of group work knowledge is called for in all areas of the profession, including community organization and development, clinical practice, and committee and team work in policy-making and administrative contexts. This course provides a social work methodology for working with groups, which is applicable to a variety of purposes, issues and populations. As such, it cross-cuts the individual, family, group, community and policy aspects of the curriculum. Social work’s on-going commitment to achieving social justice is emphasized and various forms of diversity, oppression and privilege are addressed throughout the course.

Knowledge of the theoretical foundation and practice skills for working with groups in social work is a widely useful component of graduate level social work education. The application of group work knowledge is called for in all areas of the profession, including community organization and development, clinical practice, and committee and team work in policy-making and administrative contexts. This course provides a social work methodology for working with groups, which is applicable to a variety of purposes, issues, and populations. As such, it cross-cuts the individual, group, community and policy aspects of the curriculum. Social work’s on-going commitment to achieving social justice is emphasized and the issues of various forms of diversity, oppression and privilege are addressed throughout the course.

SWK4602H Social Work Practice with Groups or equivalent.

This course aims at developing advanced knowledge and skills in working with groups. The key learning approach will be experiential process in class, integrating practicum experience. Students will participate actively in class both as group members and group leaders.

Actual content will be built around student interests and learning needs, providing opportunity to explore specific group interventions in depth. Possible foci may include therapeutic groups, family groups, community groups, and task groups in organizations. These diverse formats and interventions can be integrated conceptually by the SSLD (Strategies and Skills Learning and Development) approach created by the instructor.

Assignments can include creative options grounded in direct practice.

SWK4604H is a prerequisite for SWK4631H Advanced Social Work Practice in Mental Health

Mental illness and mental health problems affect the lives of individuals and families that social workers encounter in a wide range of health and social service settings. This course aims to equip students to provide sensitive and effective help to clients by presenting material concerning a range of mental health problems and their treatment. The course considers social work practice across the continuum of mental health care services. Attention is focused on how social workers assess, support and intervene with consideration of both the client and his or her environment. Like other courses at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, this course emphasizes the integration of research and theory with practice and the application of evidence-based approaches.

Our policy is that after the first week of classes the first year sections are set. We do not allow switches unless there are major extenuating circumstances.

This course provides fundamental preparation for students to understand clinical social work practice with individuals and families. Building on the engagement, alliance development and assessment skills students have mastered in the first term, this course introduces students to basic intervention strategies and procedures commonly utilized in clinical social work practice with individuals and families. The course approaches practice from a biopsychosocial perspective, highlighting neuro-cognitive, intrapersonal, interpersonal, community, social, political and economic factors that influence personal and interpersonal well-being, and social justice. The course is anchored in a client-centered and client-focused approach to practice which emphasizes engagement throughout the helping process.

One focus of the course will be on applying selected theoretical frameworks to engagement, assessment and intervention in practice with individuals in an ecological context. Each framework will be examined from the perspectives of problem definition, intervention strategies and critiques of biases, as well as the research evidence. Concepts of transference and countertransference as they apply to clinical work will be covered and applied to case examples.

Each learner will be encouraged to develop the details of his or her own approach to practice which incorporates professional values and focus, ethics, theories, intervention strategies, evaluation approaches, and previous learning. Learners will refine this individualized, professional model of practice throughout the course. Since this course is offered concurrently with the practicum, emphasis will be placed on the integration of classroom learning with students’ practicum experiences.

This course provides an opportunity to “reflect-on-practice” through a critical and anti-oppression lens. Students are invited to critically examine what constitutes effective, justice infused professional practice through an interconnected set of course activities including, group process, assigned readings, consideration of historical precedents, engagement with guest speakers speaking about their own approaches to anti-oppressive practice, student-led presentations, and student’s own professional experiences in social work practice as case material for class discussion and personal reflection.

The goal of the course is to identify a professional skill set necessary to effect social change at different scales – personal, interpersonal, family/community, organizational/institutional, and macro (community, policy and legislation). Careful consideration will be given to assessing—in a theoretically and methodologically rigorous, reflexive way—how social work practice tools and strategies can replicate inequalities, or work towards developing more accessible and equitable opportunities for diverse communities.

This course is designed to familiarize students  with the core concepts and skills necessary for social work practice with families. An integrated family systems and ecological developmental model provides the guiding framework for viewing children and adolescents within the context of their families and extra-familial relationships that affect their development and functioning. Emphasis is on the development of clinical case conceptualization and practice skills in engagement, assessment, and intervention with families that are grounded in current research on treatment effectiveness and empirically supported theories on parenting and family processes, child functioning, and therapeutic change. We will examine the theoretical and practice roots, therapeutic processes, and specific treatment strategies both within and across selected parenting and family therapy models. Attention will be paid to the diverse nature of families within the context of their unique needs and the multiple systems in which family life is embedded.

One-week summer intensive June 5-9, 2023

This course is designed to familiarize students with the core concepts and skills necessary for social work practice with families. An integrated family systems and ecological developmental model provides the guiding framework for viewing children and adolescents within the context of their families and extra-familial relationships that affect their development and functioning. The primary focus will be on the development of evidence informed clinical case conceptualization and practice skills in engagement, assessment, and intervention with families. See the session long syllabus available in the FIFSW general office for a fuller course description.

The course will be adapted for the one week format but will essentially be equivalent to the session long course and consist of lectures, family therapy videos, role plays, group work and discussion. Students will form Family Groups and work as a collaborative team throughout the course for the purpose of applying course content to a family, role playing and assignments that build on Family Group learning. In some ways, the daily class format will be similar to a workshop. The ongoing Family Group will offer an opportunity to practice new learning skills in a supportive collaborative environment and takes on special importance in the one week format because students will not be in practicum with the opportunity to apply learning to ongoing cases.

The syllabus and course readings will be available on Blackboard in June and will need to be read ahead of time. The readings are clinically rich and key for contributing to and benefitting from class activities. To facilitate both moving into Family Groups and reflecting on readings, class participants should be prepared to introduce themselves, their interests, and “gems” of learning or questions from the readings on Day 1. You should expect to put in some evening time during the week to review readings as needed and to work on two short assignments. The final written product will build on and extend previous Family Group work and be due two weeks after course completion.

This course examines selected areas of clinical social work practice that reflect current issues and models of intervention used with older adults and their families with an emphasis on a biopsychosocial perspective.  Approaches taught include both assessment and treatment modalities in a variety of practice settings (community and institutions).  Students will have the opportunity to learn about doing comprehensive assessments and formulate appropriate interventions for this population. Issues related to healthy aging, ethical dilemmas and working with diverse populations are interwoven into the content of the entire course. This advanced practice course will utilize a combination of lectures, class discussions, case studies, use of videotapes and guest lecturers to teach skills, which will enable students to examine practice issues in working with older adults. By the end of this course, students will be able to:

• Formulate a comprehensive social work assessment based on this population
• Understand cognitive /mental and physical health status of older people and its effect on functioning and independence as well as how these health issues are affecting the family/caregiver.
• Enhance clients/ families’ abilities to cope with changes though a variety of treatment modalities (e.g., face-to-face, groups and online interventions).
• Understand the social work perspective within a multidisciplinary geriatric setting.

This course explores a range of practice approaches relevant to working with couples, including Cognitive-Behavioral, Emotionally-Focused, Solution-Focused and Narrative. Topics include special issues, structure, boundaries, ethics, diversity, effectiveness research and evaluation. The assignment focuses on having students develop and critiquing their own practice model for work with couples.

This course will examine selected areas in clinical practice and health and social policy that reflect current issues and models of intervention used by social workers practicing with older adults and their families. As part of this course, students will focus on essential elements of policy as it relates to practice and research environments, and their links to the delivery of health and social services to older adults. The course will consider “issues on the ground” where connections between policy and practice are made to enhance the well-being of older Canadians.

Approved elective course for Collaborative Program in Aging and the Life Course

This course focuses on mental disorders that are diagnosed In older populations and the course of mental illnesses as people diagnosed with mental illnesses age. Using a life course perspective, readings and lectures will explore the psychosocial issues that affect individuals diagnosed with mental illness and their family members and how social work intervention can promote mental health and well-being for clients social workers may encounter in health, social and community services.

This elective course is open only to Master of Social Work (MSW) students.

This elective course is designed for social work students interested in further expanding their knowledge and skills in practice with clients/families confronted by life-limiting illnesses and about the field of palliative care. Social workers in many practice settings will encounter individuals and families facing situations involving life-limiting illness, dying, death, grief, and bereavement.

Social work practice in hospice palliative care (HPC) is founded on an approach to care that considers individuals and their families in the full context of their lives and appreciates the physical, psychosocial and emotional, spiritual, and practical dimensions of their experience. This course will explore the interprofessional nature of palliative care delivery, and social work’s unique contributions to care of those facing dying. Perspectives of other disciplines involved in palliative care delivery will also be examined. Students in this course will have the opportunity to explore and understand their perceptions and beliefs of dying and dying and how individual cultural differences influence that experience.

This course will demonstrate how contemporary cognitive and behavioural theories (CBTs) and concepts enrich modern clinical social work practice. CBT is a family of treatments and practices that are used to teach, coach and reinforce positive behaviours for people dealing with a wide variety of problems. Much of what is known about CBT is based on research studies that have demonstrated its efficacy as a time-limited intervention to address specific problems like depression and anxiety disorders. However, CBT is increasingly being used and adapted to meet the needs of a wide variety of populations with an emphasis on strengths, empowerment and developing self-efficacy to address many developmental and environmental stressors. This course will emphasize how CBT fits into contemporary social work practice and will explore the interface between working with individuals using CBT interventions and addressing social and contextual issues like diversity, oppression and social justice.

Approved elective course for Collaborative Program in Addiction Studies

The focus is on the specialized knowledge base needed to enhance practice with alcohol and drug dependent client systems in individual, group and family counselling/therapy.

Approved elective course for Collaborative Program in Ethnic and Pluralism Studies

This course is designed to increase the analytical and practice competence of participants when working with populations whose culture is different from their own. Its foci are to gain an understanding of the phenomena of culture, and how culture impacts the practitioner, the client, and the helping process; to appreciate the experience of the culturally different, and how such experiences may affect the overall functioning of client populations; to critically examine social work and its service systems, and to offer alternatives consistent with multi-cultural realities; and finally, to begin to develop inter-cultural communication skills and to explore alternative approaches in working within a culturally diverse context.

This course will examine selected areas in social gerontology that reflect the current challenges facing social work practitioners who work with older adults and their families. The issues chosen will change from rear to year and will be determined by current concerns that impact the lives of the elderly. The course will be taught by those who are engaged in practice, policy and/or research concerning the selected topic. Topics may include: legal, ethical and competency issues; elder abuse: physical, psychological and financial. The goal of the course is to ensure that practitioners are up to date in their knowledge and skills about the latest developments in gerontological social work.

A major difficulty of family law is that the problems brought by families are often not primarily legal problems; they are deep human problems in which the law is involved. Settlements that are worked out among the parties, voluntarily and co-operatively, are not only more humane than those forced by litigation, but they are more practical, more economical and more likely to endure. In the federal Divorce Act and in recent Provincial legal reforms, Family Mediation received strong support as a meaningful alternative to traditional practices. To meet this challenge, this course will help students to develop a critical awareness of various co-operative approaches to dispute resolution, with particular emphasis on family mediation. To these ends, a feminist-informed and cultural sensitive perspective in this emerging interdisciplinary approach will be presented. Throughout, the practical application of theory, research findings and conflict resolution skills will be stressed. Role plays and videotapes of actual mediation session will be used.

This course prepares students for social work practice with children and adolescents within this ecological developmental context.

The course will incorporate content on:
1) therapeutic skills and strategies required for assessment and intervention with children and adolescents;
2) developmental perspectives within an ecological context;
3) selected practice theories (e.g., feminist, psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioural); and
4) examination of the interactions between the social worker and the child or adolescent and their family and the impact of these interactions on the therapeutic work. Attention will be paid to diversity and oppressions that may impact children and adolescents.

This course will introduce students to the core concepts (general theory and foundational knowledge) which inform evidence-based assessment and intervention with traumatized children and adolescents. Strength-based practice will be highlighted along with a focus on the identification of protective and promotive factors that foster resiliency and post-traumatic growth. Trauma is broadly defined, and includes children and adolescents exposed to traumatic events including, but not limited to natural disasters, war, abuse and neglect, medical trauma, and witnessing interpersonal crime (e.g., domestic violence) and other traumatic events. The course will highlight the role of development, culture and empirical evidence in trauma-specific interventions with children, adolescents and their families. It will address the level of functioning of primary care giving environments and assess the capacity of the community to facilitate restorative processes.

Using a problem based learning approach (PBL), students will apply the core concepts of trauma treatment to five specifically designed cases that reflect a distillation of the best evidence about the impact of trauma on children, adolescents and families. This provides the opportunity for in-depth case study and to experience “real” cases as they actually unfold in clinical practice. Within the PBL framework, each student has a crucial role in her/his own learning and in contributing to the learning of other students. This includes demonstrated ability to listen deeply and attentively, integrate knowledge from specific course readings, and actively volunteer and contribute to the class discussions of the cases and exercises. It is essential that you come to class prepared with questions that reflect your readings and insights. Readings will be available and need to be completed prior to class beginning. Students will also be required to complete the free online Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavior Therapy training which complements the readings and class content.

For more information click here.

SWK4622H is a prerequisite for SWK4632H Advanced Social Work Practice in Health

This course will address the practice of social work in health care reflecting the health care needs of Canada’s population, which range from health promotion to long-term care. The primary focus of this course will be the increasing complexity of integrating social work practice with the current issues in the health care system. The course content will identify unique population needs, practice settings, social work interventions and policy issues. Practice models presented will include both micro and macro interventions, which incorporate competence and empowerment as central themes. New models of care are being considered, including primary health care. In this time of change, social workers have an important role to play in health care by articulating and illuminating: the impact of socio-cultural factors on health and well being; the significance of family relationships and resources in the management of chronic and complex health conditions; and interventions that support individual and family capacity to adapt to acute health crises or chronic health conditions.

Approved elective course for Collaborative Program in Women’s Studies

Violence Against Women: Inter-Disciplinary Responses to Woman Abuse and Children Exposed to Family Violence

Based on feminist principles this course integrates theory and practice, and incorporates analyses of policy and inter-disciplinary responses to woman abuse and children exposed to domestic violence. In Canada, violence in families occurs at alarming rates; however, societal and professional response to this serious problem has been variable. Emphasis will be on the relationships between societal structures and the family, and congruence with professional practice response. The course explores how various forms of abuse/violence is perpetrated and maintained, examines escape from domination, and reviews interventions with best outcomes for abused women and children. These issues are studied and discussed within the diverse contexts of family life, and take into account the multiple influences of intersecting oppressions on families.

Approved elective course for Collaborative Program in Women’s Studies

This course will provide students an opportunity to gain knowledge of feminist-informed counselling approaches and issues that are relevant to working with women. The practice framework draws heavily on feminist, relational and narrative ways of working as well as drawing on material which focuses on specific counselling issues and themes. This course views clinical issues within the wider social cultural context and is sensitive to the influences of the dominant discourses in our practice. The course will focus on the development of practice skills through discussion of practice situation and scenarios. The course will also integrate the use of non-verbal and creative modalities with clients.

New title and description as of September 2011

This course explores the historical, political, theoretical, legal and practice dimensions of working with children and families within the context of child welfare. The  course is designed to provide social work students with a forum to critically explore the social, political and legislative changes that have transformed child welfare services. Social workers in all fields (health, school system, mediation, corrections, refugee and immigrant services, etc. ) come into contact with children and families who are seen as “at risk”. Social work practitioners need the necessary foundation, knowledge and skills to work collaboratively to help support, advocate and intervene with children and families who come into contact with child welfare services. This course attempts to move beyond longstanding divisions between traditional child welfare services and other child-related services by exploring ways in children and families can be supported regardless of their point of service contact. Students will develop a thorough understanding of child welfare services and the range of services that can be offered for children and families to promote safety, protection, permanency, well-being and positive adjustment.

(Previous title and description)

Contemporary Issues in Working with Children and their Families

This course emphasizes evidence-based practice and critical thinking to determine what programs and policies are best suited to address the needs of children, adolescents and their families and communities. The course is designed to complement the Social Work Practice with Children and Adolescents course and the Social Work Practice with Families course that together with Contemporary Issues in working with Children and their Families and Research for Practice with Children and their Families, forms the core of the Children and their Families specialization. As such, the course is guided by the specialization’s ecological developmental framework, emphasizing the multiple determinants of problem behaviour and also of resilient development across developmental phases. The course examines cross cutting issues within the ecology of children, adolescents and their families across multiple systems. From this perspective, the course emphasizes opportunities for action at all levels of children’s social ecology, from individual interventions, to prevention programs, to developing more effective policies.

This course provides critical knowledge and skills for working with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and asexual (LGBTIA) individuals. This course will identify the health and mental health disparities experienced by sexual and gender minority populations and the role of discrimination on their well-being. Through the lens of practice, students will gain knowledge of identity development and resilience throughout the life course, with a particular focus on youth and emerging adults. Students will learn and utilize affirmative approaches to social work practice (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapy, case management, group interventions). Class will consist of lecture and student discussion, role-plays and simulation-based learning.

This course will provide an in-depth investigation of the assessment and treatment of eating disorders for social workers. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the theoretical and etiological underpinnings of the development and maintenance of eating disorders, as well as learn and practice assessment techniques and evidence-based interventions. Social work students will leave the course with the understanding and skills to identify and treat.

The main aim of this course is to explore different aspects of narrative construction and the intersection between ‘personal life stories’, broader societal, cultural and institutionally shaped narratives. A related aim is to grapple with the consideration that narratives are always partial representations. What comes to be represented through narrative means are diverse and often divergent versions and viewpoints about personal-social issues. Diversity content and approaches are an integral part of this course which rests on the diversity of perspectives and how they cut across levels of activities. We will be drawing from various interdisciplinary sources and work, in the course, to derive implications for social work knowledge and practice.

Prerequisite: SWK4604H Social Work Practice in Mental Health

Students in the Mental Health and Health Specialization can take this course instead of SWK4622H Social Work Practice in Health to meet specialization requirements.

This course builds on SWK4604H to examine and develop, at an advanced level, the practice knowledge and skills required to be a social worker within a continuum of mental health care contexts. This course allows students to explore a range of effective clinical interventions for individuals and families living with mental illness. Course content will include examinations of psychosocial assessment, case management, group work, family therapies, psychoeducation, discharge planning, individual psychotherapies, community work and advocacy. All interventions will be further explored in terms of their theoretical foundations, specific procedures, evaluation, evidence base, ethics, cultural competence, interdisciplinary issues and use of the therapeutic alliance.

Prerequisite: SWK4622H Social Work Practice in Health

Students in the Mental Health and Health Specialization can take this course instead of SWK4604H Social Work Practice in Mental Health to meet specialization requirements.

Health issues are complex, multifaceted, and have the potential to directly affect quality of life and well-being. This course builds on SWK4622H to examine and develop, at an advanced level, the practice knowledge and skills required to be a social worker within a continuum of health care contexts. Working collaboratively with interprofessional teams, social workers require a range of assessment, counselling, negotiation and co-ordination skills to assist individuals and their extended network to successfully adapt to the challenges presented by treatment and/or longer term health and functional changes. Additionally, social workers contribute at a program and organizational level by situating patient needs and health services in the context of the broader social determinants of health.

Prerequisite: SWK4608H Social Work Practice with Families or an equivalent introductory family therapy course or consent of instructor.

This course differs from (Family Practice Across the Life Cycle) in its focus and depth specific to children and adolescents, their parents and families.

This practice course builds on SWK4608H and is designed to deepen and expand at an advanced level clinical knowledge and competence in work with families of children and adolescents in multiple contexts across service systems.

The course will be highly interactive and seminar style with the focus on applied learning in preparing evidence informed contextually and culturally responsive family assessment and treatment plans and enhancing clinical skills and self efficacy. We will examine therapeutic processes and specific strategies for optimizing change both within and across different ecological parenting and family therapy models (e.g., functional family therapy, multisystemic therapy, attachment based family therapy, multidimensional therapy, brief strategic therapy, collaborative cognitive behavioral models, psychoeducation and integrative narrative models).

The course will provide an opportunity to apply systemic thinking to diverse problems and populations of at-risk youth and families and allow students to explore a range of effective family centered intervention or prevention models for diverse issues (e.g., adolescent depression, child or youth anxiety, externalizing disorders, child and/or parent trauma, parent depression). Students will strengthen their ability to use evidence in clinical decision-making in nuanced ways in real world complex cases and be supported to integrate class learning with social work values, knowledge and skills into a framework for one’s own professional model of practice.

Informal family caregivers represent an increasingly large group within the context of an aging society. The experience of caregiving for an older adult can be both rewarding and challenging. In this course, we will seek to understand knowledge, theory, and interventions relevant to the experience of family caregiving for an older adult. We will examine how caregiver stress can contribute to adverse effects or be buffered by different types of support and coping styles. The course will consider how the caregiving journey is experienced and negotiated differently by caregivers of diverse social locations. Core assignments seek to relate course theory and research to real-life caregiver experience.

Gerontological social work counseling draws on many different theoretical perspectives. Using a life course perspective, this course will provide an overview of the theoretical underpinnings of five counseling strategies: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Reminiscence Therapy, Brief Solution Focused Therapy, Multi-generational Family Therapy and Therapeutic Group Work. The course will address the theories and approaches of these models to meet the unique needs of older adults. Students will learn creative solutions and problem solving to adapt these techniques to older adults dealing with cognitive impairments, age-related physical illness (e.g. arthritis, stroke) and mental health problems (e.g. anxiety, depression), grief and loss, later life transitions (e.g. retirement, relocation, social isolation), caregiver burden and ageism. The course will emphasize practice solution through weekly role playing, case presentations and the development of intervention strategies.

This course provides critical knowledge with a focus on competencies and skills for effective crises intervention with high-risk clients. Through the lens of social work practice, students will gain knowledge of the common issues that contribute to mental health crises (e.g. trauma, suicidality, self-harm) and the application of short term, empirically-based interventions designed to treat crises across the life course. With a focus on experiential application, students will learn and utilize their previous experience and coursework in mental health practice through readings, lecture, discussion, case scenarios, quizzes, presentations, papers and role-plays.

This course will inspire and challenge students to learn and engage with various social work approaches for working with and supporting people with disabilities and their families. Using an ecological life-course perspective, students will be encouraged to explore and examine some of the key psychosocial experiences identified from the lived experiences of disabled people in society. The course will be delivered in collaboration with clients and family members from the disability community and enhanced with course readings, first-person narratives, community site visits, and experiential learning. This course is designed for MSW students from all specializations and at all stages of the program.

 This course focuses on increasing the knowledge, competence, and skills to work effectively with children and adolescents with mental health issues from both a prevention and treatment perspective.

It is designed to: (1) increase knowledge of the most common child and youth mental health disorders, including theory and research on prevalence, etiology, developmental course and diagnosis; and (2) facilitate the development of knowledge and skills in assessment and case formulation, and in the delivery of culturally and contextually responsive effective intervention to children and their families.

Students will enhance their ability to use clinical decision-making with real world complex cases.

Course title and description will be updated if course is active in a given academic session.

The course will conceptualize the link between theory and the development of micro-clinical skills.  The theoretical link will include a focus on brief family therapy to be able to begin and end the clinical work within the session.  Micro-clinical skills (concrete actions) to be developed may be flexible depending on the family’s unique circumstances and are based in the following theoretical interventions (those processes in which the clinician engages the family to create change): engagement and developing a therapeutic alliance, formulating goals for work, the distinctive aspects of managing a family system in contrast to individual therapy models, working with intense affect in sessions, work with silence in sessions, engaging a reluctant family member, working through impasses in the alliance and in the clinical work.  Many other topics will present themselves, again depending on the particular family’s issues.

This course will introduce students to the core concepts (general theory and foundational knowledge) which inform evidence-based assessment and intervention with traumatized children and adolescents. Strength-based practice will be highlighted along with a focus on the identification of protective and promotive factors that foster resiliency and post-traumatic growth. Trauma is broadly defined, and includes children and adolescents exposed to traumatic events including, but not limited to natural disasters, war, abuse and neglect, medical trauma, and witnessing interpersonal crime (e.g., domestic violence) and other traumatic events. The course will highlight the role of development, culture and empirical evidence in trauma-specific interventions with children, adolescents and their families. It will address the level of functioning of primary care giving environments and assess the capacity of the community to facilitate restorative processes.

Using a problem based learning approach (PBL), students will apply the core concepts of trauma treatment to five specifically designed cases that reflect a distillation of the best evidence about the impact of trauma on children, adolescents and families. This provides the opportunity for in-depth case study and to experience “real” cases as they actually unfold in clinical practice. Within the PBL framework, each student has a crucial role in her/his own learning and in contributing to the learning of other students. This includes demonstrated ability to listen deeply and attentively, integrate knowledge from specific course readings, and actively volunteer and contribute to the class discussions of the cases and exercises. It is essential that you come to class prepared with questions that reflect your readings and insights. Readings will be available and need to be completed prior to class beginning. Students will also be required to complete the free online Trauma Focused-Cognitive Behavior Therapy training which complements the readings and class content.

For more information click here.

This course focuses on School social work which is a specialized area of social work concerned with the psychosocial functioning of students to promote and maintain their health and well-being while assisting students to access their academic potential. School social workers are “trained mental health professionals who can assist with mental health concerns, behavioral concerns, positive behavioral support, academic, and classroom support, consultation with teachers, parents, and administrators as well as provide individual and group counseling/therapy.”

Some of the roles of school social workers include psycho-social assessment and intervention, student and family counseling, adaptive behavior assessment, recreational therapies, health education, assessing social and developmental histories of students with disabilities, identifying students at-risk, integrating community resources into schools, advocacy, case management for identifying students in need of help and to promote systematic change within a school system,[2] crisis intervention and conflict resolution.

Course title and description will be updated if course is active in a given academic session.

This seminar on organizational change is being offered based on feedback we have received from students in the Specialization in Social Service Administration over the past several academic years. It builds on the material that was covered in the Leadership Skills course but will go into much more depth in the area of organizational change. The course will bring a social work perspective to bear on the issues confronted in the ongoing process of change in human service organizations. Particular emphasis will continue to be given to organizational initiatives to embrace diversity, promote client-centered care and implement evidence-informed practice. This course will take a seminar approach to learning and significant emphasis will be based on peer-learning. The first class meeting will be used to identify topics within organization change that students would like to pursue in greater depth and share with their colleagues. Some of the topics that have been addressed in previous years are strategic planning, mental health in the workplace, teamwork, supervision, integration/coordination/merger of services, and collaboration with the community.

This course will reflect the connections between Social Work and Jewish Studies and is open to students of all identities. It will offer a participatory exploration of the contemporary challenges where the theoretical and experiential, personal and professional and individual and community understandings of Antisemitism, Anti-oppressive practice and Social Justice intersect. It will focus on an examination of the impact of Antisemitism locally and internationally in the current context of the environmental, political and social crises in today’s world. Course material and classroom seminars will examine both the Canadian Jewish experience and the traumatic impact of growing racism and cultural shifts within the local and the broader community. Students will explore how this impacts their studies, their practice placements and their personal experience and understanding of systemic oppression. Course content will be presented in accordance with the Faculty’s mission of “promoting social work practice grounded in social justice and equal opportunity for all groups in society irrespective of gender, ethnic origin, race, native heritage, language, religious beliefs, class, sexual orientation, disability, age, culture or any other forms of diversity”, and will consider the impact of culture, religion and ethnicity on social policy and social services. Students will address the challenges of racism in general and antisemitism in particular and how it reverberates and impacts the well-being and health across all communities.

Course topic and description subject to change in any given term.

This course provides conceptual frameworks, empirical findings, and practice principles that provide a basis for competence and effective practice in clinical and administrative leadership roles in agencies. These roles include supervisors of staff and multi-disciplinary teams, field instructors for social work students, and in staff development to provide continuing professional education for social work and related professionals.

In this course students will learn about family-centred social work practices in mental health and addictions. Students will examine how mental health concerns and addictions impact families and will also learn about the importance of family involvement in service provisions. There will be a critical examination of facilitators and barriers to family involvement in mental health and addiction services. Students will apply a few conceptual models to family-centred social work practice including recovery, harm reduction, and strengths-based models. Most of this course will focus on developing skills for working with families coping with addictions and mental health concerns. Emphasis is on developing family assessment skills and learning to provide families with information, support, and coping skills. The course will also focus on learning to facilitate supportive psychoeducation groups for families. This course requires active involvement from students and there will be several simulation exercises.

The diagnosis of an acute or chronic health condition in a child or adolescent often creates a crisis for the child and entire family and may overwhelm their ability to cope, which has the potential to impact the processes of care and recovery, and may result in less than optimal health outcomes. Children and families may face added struggles related to family conflict or associated with other social determinants of health such as inadequate income, housing, employment or social exclusion. These struggles compound the impact of the health condition and create added stress for the child and family.

The purpose of this course is to assist students to learn how to assess, develop and carry out intervention plans for children, adolescents and their families who are impacted by health care challenges. The course will incorporate content on:

1) assessment of immediate and ongoing needs of children and teens impacted by health care challenges;
2) developmental perspectives on the needs of pediatric patients and their families;
3) skills and strategies commonly employed in social work practice in a pediatric health care setting;
4) challenges and opportunities working within family-centred and interprofessional models of practice and 5) special issues and topics related to pediatric health care with children and adolescents.

Throughout the course there will be an emphasis upon integration of theory, practice, and research and the impact and contribution of diversity.

Within the contemporary welfare state era, direct service organizations have taken on increasing responsibility in addressing the emerging social issues and challenges within our local communities. Social innovation refers to the varying ways that organizations and practitioners create this social change. This course, taught in a seminar format, introduces students to the concepts of social innovation, social entrepreneurship, and social enterprise as applied to the social services and the mission of creating change at service user, programmatic, organizational, and community levels of practice. Course content will include theoretical and conceptual literature on the emerging role played by the nonprofit and voluntary sector within the provision of contemporary social welfare, along with a typology of social change efforts undertaken by direct service organizations. Then, emphasis will be placed on the inter-organizational dynamics (such as collaborations, networks, and extent of marketization) and aspects of the intra-organizational context (such as leadership and organizational culture) that are most conducive in supporting the development and implementation of socially innovative programs and initiatives. Course material is drawn from aggregated empirical studies and case studies, but will also emphasize peer-learning and the application of course material to student contexts and levels of practice.

Our policy is that after the first week of classes the first year sections are set. We do not allow switches unless there are major extenuating circumstances.

This course provides foundation content on social work methods in working with organizations and communities. It is designed to complement the social work courses that individuals receive in the foundation year of preparation for student’s entry into the second year of the master’s program. The course will utilize the generalist intervention model and practice skills. The course will focus on social work methods and theory, skills and techniques that help to effect change, solve problems and enhance the functioning of organizations and communities.

 NOTE: OFFERED AS A ONE-WEEK INTENSIVE COURSE

Individual and community mental health and well-being are strongly influenced by the broader context in which our clients live. A Social Determinants of Health (SDH) framework provides the analytical tools to address structural challenges and related concepts of colonialism, racism that affect people’s health and well-being. This course will utilize this same framework to examine social determinants of homicide, with a specific focus on factors that contribute to the disproportionate experience of homicide for Black communities, while exploring culturally responsive trauma informed ways to intervene.

Open to both MSW and PhD students

This course examines how immigrants and people of colour are constructed/understood in our society in general and in social services in particular. Special attention will be paid to how the intersecting oppressions of race/ethnicity, gender, class, age, sexual orientation, health status, and differential ability affects immigrants and refugees in Canada. The course provides an overview of the history of immigration to Canada and the impact of social policies and programs on the settlement and adaptation of newcomers. The course will also highlight the barriers that newcomers face in Canadian society and emphasis will be placed on access, equity and human rights as fundamental principles that should form the basis of human service delivery for newcomers. Finally, the course examines different models of service provision with a view to developing empowering practice with immigrants and refugees. Throughout the course, special attention will be paid to the integration of theory, research and practice, and the different levels of practice. The students will have an opportunity to explore their specific interests through assignments and the course schedule has built-in time for sharing of ideas and receiving feedback from peers within the class time. In addition to in-class lectures, guest speakers will share their exemplary experiences working with immigrants and refugees, in the areas of direct practice, community-based research, advocacy and policy change.

This course reviews management theory and practice and aims to prepare students for leadership roles in social work organizations. Topics include: preparing funding proposals, budgeting, team building, appraising staff performance, supervision and working with voluntary boards. We will use a hand on approach in which we will create an organization and deal with issues arising in the organization over the term.

This innovative week-long course will explore the many complex intersections of information technology and social work practice, with the goal of having students develop a range of cutting-edge practice competencies and digital skills through hands-on application of course principles using emerging technologies and simulation learning. The course will address a variety of topics, including: building and leveraging a professional online identity, the ethics of using information technologies in contemporary practice, the many opportunities for using technology in offline social work practice at multiple levels (e.g., micro, mezzo, macro), and emerging opportunities for multi-level online social work practice.

This graduate seminar explores current research and theory on clinical and policy issues in child welfare. The seminar seeks to bridge the gap that has often separated clinical and policy issues, as well as span the division between traditional child welfare services and other child and youth service systems. Clinical child welfare issues are best understood in terms of the social and institutional frameworks that define them. Likewise, child welfare policy should be guided by a thorough understanding of children’s needs and of the effectiveness of available services and supports.

This course has been developed with the aim of introducing students to the essentials of psychodynamic theory and practice. From its earliest beginnings as a ‘talking cure’ over 100 years ago, a range of psychodynamic theories and practices have been developed and refined in response to a variety of factors including changes in epistemology, socio-cultural trends, client populations, and contributions from other related fields such as neurobiology, developmental and attachment research. As will be explored throughout the course, these theories and their applications are rich in depth and complexity, highly informative and applicable to a wide range of clients.

In this course, students will be introduced to each of the major psychodynamic theories, and learn how to apply those theories to their current casework. As well, students will gain insight into the psychosocial context out of which these theories emerged, and the respective strengths and limitations of each theory in practice. Particular emphasis will be made on helping students to reflect on fundamental psychotherapeutic process issues, such as transference, countertransference and resistance, and how these play out in their clinical work.  This course fits within the mental health stream of courses and is intended for students who are already engaged in clinical social work practice.

Offered from Summer 2011

Advances in fields such as neuroscience and allied fields have provided some important new evidence about how we think, feel, learn and change. Applegate and Shapiro (Applegate and Shapiro, 2005) remark that although social work has embraced a biopsychosocial perspective, that the biological side of this tripartite stance is frequently underdeveloped in social work. They argue that the advances in neurosciences and neurobiology need to be introduced into our professional curricula. Farmer (2009) identifies neuroscience as a “missing link” for social work. Social work graduates at the Masters level need to have a good foundation of knowledge about the brain-body and its interconnections. Besides being fundamental knowledge for all social work practice, expertise in this area will foster improved inter-professional communication particularly with those professions in health related areas. This course will appeal especially to students interested in direct practice. No background in the biological sciences is necessary.

Content will include: developing the bio side of the biopsychosocial perspective of social work practice; fundamentals of the brain; the brain-body connection; the social brain; thinking, feeling and acting; memory; emotion as the foundation of reason; the helping relationship from a neuroscience perspective; neuroplasticity; ethics and social justice from a neuroscience perspective; consciousness and the new unconscious; gender and the brain; the profound impact of environment and culture on the brain and human functioning; brain-based learning and social work practice; the neuroscience of psychotherapy, neuropsychotherapy, and interpersonal neurobiology; bonding and attachment; empathy and mirror neurons; a neurodevelopmental view of childhood, and adolescence; trauma and PTSD; aging and neuroscience; neuroscience and addictions, mental health and affect regulation; neural integration; limitations of a neuroscience perspective; new frontiers for neuroscience and social work practice. Hypnosis will be explored and all students will learn how to develop and practice self-hypnosis.

Offered from Summer 2010

Mindfulness Therapy is an elective course focusing on the use of mindfulness as an essential component of any approach to clinical work, as a specific skill used in therapy, and as a quality of competent clinicians. This course provides a framework for the fundamental uses of mindfulness as a professional and therapeutic method in social work.

Mindfulness can be defined as the intentional and nonjudgmental act of bringing one’s attention and awareness to the present moment. Mindfulness skills have emerged as an important component of several empirically validated treatments in the biomedical and mental health fields. These include mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), prevention of relapse for severe depression (MBCT), treatment of borderline personality disorder (DBT), pain management, and various approaches for treating anxiety, eating disorders and trauma. Students taking this course will be required to develop or continue their own mindfulness practice.

A student who has not met the minimal competency requirements for the Practicum at mid-term of Year One may not register for any Year-Two required courses without special permission from the office of the Associate Dean, Academic.

In order to achieve a sufficient and broad knowledge base in SWK4701 Practicum 1, the student must demonstrate core social work knowledge and beginning practice competence with a client system and on behalf of such a client system, in the context of programs and organizations delivering social services. The competency model will be the framework for the practicum and the student will be expected to achieve the first level of competence as defined in the practicum manual – that is:

1. to develop and demonstrate her/his professional identity as a social worker in respect to commitment to and the provision of service to people;
2. to develop and demonstrate the ability to function within an organizational context;
3. to develop and demonstrate the ability to function within a community context;
4. to develop and demonstrate the ability to identify, assess, formulate, implement and evaluate strategy on behalf of the user system;
5. to demonstrate beginning effectiveness in communication skills.

SWK4701 Practicum 1 is a generalist practicum. A student has a choice of practicum within a range of settings. Practicum 1 provides learning opportunities for students to integrate and apply theory to practice and develop competence in performing social work roles within the framework of social work values. The practicum takes place in a wide range of service settings offering practice learning in all social work modalities. Students have an opportunity to find out about these agencies by early November, and have input into decisions about their practicum.

Time Requirements:

21 hours per week, three days per week, from January to April
28 hours per week, four days per week from mid-April to the end of May

Total Number of days in the Practicum is between 65-70 days.

The days listed above are set aside in the student’s timetable for the Practicum. However, other days may be used if there is no conflict with classes, and if mutually agreeable to student and instructor and approved by the Faculty/Field Liaison. Students are allowed the regular University holidays and may observe their religious holidays that fall on Practicum days.

The field practicum provides learning opportunities for students to integrate and apply theory to practice and develop competence in performing social work roles within the framework of social work values. The competency model will be the framework for the practicum and the student will be expected to achieve the second level of competence as defined, that is:

1. To Function Within the Professional Context: to develop and demonstrate his/her professional identity as a social worker in respect to commitment to and the provision of service to people;
2. To Function Within An Organizational Context: to develop and demonstrate the ability to function within an organizational context;
3. To Function Within A Community Context: to develop and demonstrate the ability to function within a community context;
4. To Develop and Demonstrate the ability to identify and assess problems; to plan and carry out intervention; and to evaluate intervention and utilize feedback;
5. To Employ effective communication skills relevant to micro and/or mezzo/macro practice.

The Faculty contracts with a wide range of service settings to offer practice learning in social work modalities. Students select practicum from the Faculty-contracted resources available in any given year. This is a full-year course of three days per week throughout the academic year. Practicum settings are arranged by the Practicum Office. In May previous to the commencement of the academic year, students have an opportunity to learn about the agencies offering practicums and make decisions about which agencies they wish to select for practicum interviews.

Time Requirements: 21 hours per week, from September to mid-April.
Total Number of days in the Practicum is approximately 71 days.

The days listed above are those set aside in the student’s timetable for the Practicum. However, other days may be used if there is no conflict with classes, and if mutually agreeable to student and instructor and approved by the Faculty/Field Liaison. Students are allowed the regular University holidays and may observe their religious holidays which fall on Practicum days.

In this course learners undertake field placement in an area of trauma treatment or service delivery. The learner has the opportunity to apply the knowledge of theories, social work values and ethics and principles of trauma treatment presented in the classroom in working with individuals (children, youth, or adults), groups and families.

TBD

Our response to anti-Black racism should not be solely a reaction to police brutality and state-sponsored violence. As part of social work practice, we are responsible for recognizing the profound impact of anti-Black racism on all aspects of our society, institutions, policies, practices, attitudes, interactions, and behaviors. This course will support students in creating an ongoing practice to address anti-Black racism in the social work profession, moving from theory and discussion to transformative action.   We will explore both the historical and contemporary role social work has played in the oppression, disproportionate hardship, and marginalization of Black communities in Canada as a profession and as an educational entity. Students will develop the skills and learn how to use the tools required to dismantle Anti-Black racism. This requires a non-negotiable commitment, evaluation and assessment of accountability, and the power to disrupt the impact of historical inequities, disparities, and discrimination.

Course title and description will be updated if course is active in a given academic session.

Offered as a one-week intensive course June 5-9, 2017.

In this course learners explore the transmission of trauma from cultural, communal, familial and individual perspectives. Learners will examine the critical elements in trauma-informed care for children, youth and adults, the steps for effective trauma-informed and strength based community intervention and the factors integral to a trauma-informed school. Learners will be introduced to the importance of early intervention and the key elements of safe environments and interventions. “Worker wellness” as a critical factor in trauma-informed care will be emphasized and learners will appraise their capacity to remain grounded physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually under stress. Learners will critically examine themselves in areas of spontaneity, flexibility, cultural sensitivity, self-awareness, grounding, ethics and boundaries.

This course prepares learners in the creation and execution of a three-hour workshop on a trauma related topic. Learners study “participant driven training skills” and examine tips for creating a successful presentation from beginning through delivery. Learners explore group dynamics and skills for dealing with difficult people.

This course summarizes the steps in healthy grief resolution and reviews and dispels common myths, attitudes and values that block the grief process. Specific symptomatology present in individuals, families and communities experiencing grief from sudden and violent death from recurrent suicides/murders in communities will be presented as well as methods to assist families and communities in grief resolution.

This course explores the foundations of trauma-informed care; the critical understanding of building trauma-informed organizations in order to provide mental, emotional, physical and cultural safety for those seeking counseling and health care; the characteristics of effective trauma-informed leadership; and the necessity of trauma-informed supervision, regular and critical incident debriefing and worker wellness.

The course engages learners in a critical analysis of major theories/methods of family therapy in the context of indigeneity, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and/or other identities and experiences. Learners use their knowledge and creativity to develop effective and culturally sensitive methods of assessing and treating families in their communities.

This course prepares learners to identify gaps in mental health service delivery and create solutions for unmet needs in Indigenous communities in urban, rural and international environments. Students learn to identify barriers and strengths in communities and develop skills for leadership and program development of prevention and intervention services. Specific areas of need and intervention addressed include: grieving, suicide, family and community violence, addiction and drug use problems, and post-incarceration re-integration.

PhD level course open to MSW students with permission of the instructor

In keeping with the Carnegie Foundation initiative in doctoral studies, this Ph.D. level course offers a means of stepping back and reflecting upon our discipline, past and present.

This course will engage with the questions of why history and what history? History of the present or ‘counter-memory’. Taking from Foucault, notions of problematisation and the creation of ‘events’, we will examine rupture, shifts and continuities (including unexpected) in various fields of social work practice and policy, and with various population groups.

Students’ assignment will consist in the development of such an ‘archive’. An archive is a set of documents and is a ‘space’ –materially and conceptually. Documentary materials will include texts of all sorts (biographies, agency reports,…), and also visual documents (e.g., photographs). Types of analysis: textual analysis, including discourse analysis and visual methodologies.

The course is offered primarily to doctoral students at the Faculty of Social Work. A limited number of doctoral students from other disciplines, and masters’ students in social work doing related research, may be able to join the class. The course will be offered in July-August 2009, twice weekly, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, starting the first week of July until August 13.  We will decide on either a morning time or an afternoon time based on participants’ availability.

The quality of social work practice is heavily dependent upon the quality of social work education. Therefore it is important to prepare future social work teachers with the knowledge and competencies associated with excellence as a professional educator in an academic institution. Social work doctoral programs aim to produce scholars/educators who will develop and disseminate knowledge for social welfare and social work. In preparing the future leadership for the profession, doctoral programs have the responsibility to prepare students for research and the advancement of new knowledge, and for teaching. Increasingly, new faculty are expected to provide evidence of effective teaching experience, and teaching performance is evaluated in tenure and promotion decisions.

This course is offered for doctoral students who intend to pursue a career in teaching at the community college or university level. The goal is to prepare students to function as effective social work educators by providing knowledge and skills for teaching social work. The focus will be on the integration of theory, research and practice in social work education. Specific goals are:

1. to introduce students to the structure and scope of social work education;
2. to provide conceptual frameworks and practices for effective and competent teaching, drawing on the contributions of social work and educational theory and research;
3. to prepare students for curriculum development and teaching responsibilities in academic roles;
4. to begin to develop and articulate an educational philosophy as a social work educator.

Prior graduate coursework in qualitative methods is required (e.g. SWK6307H)

Constructivist Grounded Theory Method and Phenomenology: From Design to Data Analyses

Offered Summer 2025

This advanced research methods course will delve into two major qualitative designs –constructivist grounded theory method and interpretive phenomenology. Students will learn key theoretical assumptions and methods of these two approaches to facilitate ethical engagement with vulnerable research participants on sensitive topics, while also working towards the highest standards of qualitative rigor. The course will provide students opportunities to familiarize themselves with the nuances of these methodologies, and implications for data generation and analysis. Textual data will be the units of analyses. Initial and focused coding as well as open, axial and selective coding will be taught as practiced in the grounded theory tradition. As well, how to conduct thematic analysis for phenomenological based data will be taught. Interpretive methods and trustworthiness will be covered as part of the research process. Further, hands on practice will be required for research interviewing and in using NVivo software. Students will be provided data for analyses or may use their own.

Critical Discourse & Narrative Approaches to Interpretive Policy Analysis

Offered in previous years

This methodology course will focus on critical discourse and narrative approaches to interpretive policy analysis. We will examine the contemporary debates in the area of interpretive research and ground these debates in relation feminist, post-colonial, and critical race methodologies. In particular, we will examine the ‘linguistic turn’ in social science and how theories of language complicate the research process. We will also explore the ‘cultural turn’ in social science which reflect debates of how human life is lived across multiple cultural contexts. And finally, we will address the ‘critical turn’, which engages how power and knowledge are embedded in the process of research. In addition, will discuss and practice common strategies to access and collect data (e.g., observation, interviewing, finding existing documents), methods of organizing and representing different forms/genres of data for analysis (e.g., transcripts, electronic texts, images, hand-written notes); and strategies to analyze and represent your analyses for different audiences.

This advanced graduate course seeks to support social work and health science doctoral students to develop appropriate research designs and research proposals for either their comprehensive paper or their doctoral dissertation research.

This is a PhD level course.

This course will examine how professional knowledge evolves in the context of broader intellectual currents in philosophy, humanity, and social sciences. We will focus on some contemporary debates that mark significant trends in epistemological, moral, cultural, geopolitical, and global approaches affecting social work theories and practices. In particular, we examine the critical reflexive scholarship which engages how power and knowledge are (re)produced, legitimized, and performed in social work profession, and in turn how social work profession is contested and positioned in its professionalization.

Exploring the meta-perspectives would provide a platform for students to remain attuned to and critically reflect on ordinary yet morally and politically charged everyday social work practice as well as significant issues in the social and intellectual context of social work theories.

This advanced theory course is designed for social and health science doctoral students. It aims to assist students to theorize social and health science constructs from various meta-perspectives in order to expand in-depth understanding and complexities of the constructs under study. This course will provide some foundational thinking and formulation materials before they undertake their comprehensive paper and independent research topic.

The course content assumes that participants have taken at least one policy course at the graduate level. It is anticipated that some seminar members will have done significant amounts of policy analysis in their careers. It is expected that all have a keen interest in a specific policy area that is part of their doctoral research agenda. The content and organization of the seminar is based on these assumptions.

The seminar will focus on current social policy dilemmas facing countries such as Canada. All have normative aspects (for instance, an emphasis on rights versus social benefits), while debates are framed within local, national and international discourses which often seem to be competing and disjointed. How these dilemmas are resolved will greatly affect those groups whom social workers serve. The course has been divided into three segments.

The first part will focus on assessing the frameworks behind several models of social policy and the theories that inform them. These include: the Policy Stages model (probably most familiar); Institutional Rational Choice; Multiple Streams Framework; Punctuated Equilibrium model; Advocacy Coalition model; Policy Diffusion Model. Models vary in their foci e.g., some are concerned with short-term policy effects, others focus on long-term changes, several are concerned with issues of making valid comparisons across countries.

The second segment will consider issues that affect the policy climate nationally and internationally. For instance:

• Globalization and its impact in different social policy areas;
• Modern governance and the relationship between citizens, state and business;
• The current concern with issues of social exclusion, social cohesion and social capital;
• The balance between responsibilities and rights in changing claims of citizenship;
• Difference and its relationship to the idea of universalism;
• The New Economy, e.g., information technology and knowledge based economies;
• Security concerns and their effects on social policy in the post 9/11 environment.

Key to the quality of discussions will be input by each seminar member as they use their own policy area for grounding and assessing how the above frameworks and debates look when applied in real life situations.

The third part of the course is the debate arising from the oral presentations which are the first part of the assignment. The assignment will be two-fold. The first part is an oral “Briefing of the Minister” approach wherein students lay out the relevant issues in specified areas using no more than five slides. The final assignment is a policy analysis paper, directed to a suitable journal, which takes up the policy issue addressed in briefing notes and makes recommendations. It is expected that this manuscript will actually be submitted after the course.

Students will be required to have passed a competency exam or SWK4506H as a prerequisite for this course.

This course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to understand, interpret and apply methods of quantitative analysis to social work research topics. Several major multivariate statistical techniques will be presented including two ways ANOVAs (analysis of variance), multiple regression and logistic regression.

This course has two major goals: that students be able to critically examine the contextual appropriateness of statistical techniques used in the literature; and that students can correctly identify for further study the most suitable statistical technique for their own research. Students will become competent users of multivariate techniques in the SPSS computer software program through weekly hands-on assignments applying the major statistical techniques to a secondary data set.

Please note that further, more traditional, statistics course will be necessary for those using complex multivariate techniques in their dissertation analysis. Students will be required to have passed a competency exam or SWK4506H as a prerequisite for this course.

This course is about the theory of knowledge, that is, epistemology. Epistemologists are typically concerned with questions about the nature, origin and limits of human knowledge. This course will examine the epistemology of social research and its influence on the social work knowledge-building enterprise.

The three major paradigms that have guided inquiry in social work – the positivist, interpretative and critical approaches will be examined in terms of the major theories representing these paradigms and selected methods of inquiry. Epistemological issues, reflected in the debates about the nature, scope and “truth” value of social work research will be evaluated. Current challenges to the established paradigms, namely feminism, ethnic studies and post modernism, will be considered in light of their contributions to the debates. A critical thinking approach to learning will be encouraged.

This is intended as a doctoral level course. Masters level students must seek instructor permission.

This session of the course will focus on the philosophical underpinnings, techniques and practices that inform interpretive research design and methods in the social and health sciences. Interpretive research—conceptually distinct from the more ubiquitous term ‘qualitative’—signals an attention to the philosophical presuppositions that guide the production of knowledge and meaning making.

Traditions in interpretive methodology are vast and diverse. In this course, we will focus on ethnography, interpretive policy analysis, action research, and different forms of discourse analysis (we may explore other methodologies depending on student interest and as time permits). In addition to addressing philosophical foundations, we will discuss and practice common strategies to access and collect data (e.g. observation, interviewing, finding existing documents), methods of organizing and representing different forms/genres of data for analysis (e.g. transcripts, electronic texts, hand-written notes); and strategies to analyze and represent your analyses for different audiences.

This advanced graduate course seeks to support social work doctoral students and graduate students in related disciplines to develop appropriate research designs and research proposals for either their comprehensive paper or their doctoral dissertation research. Prior graduate course work in qualitative methods required. Prior course work in epistemology or the philosophy of science is strongly recommended. This is intended as a doctoral level course. Masters level students must seek instructor permission.

Offered only to students who have been approved to prepare a MSW thesis incorporating qualitative research methods.

Building on students’ previous knowledge of the principles and practice of qualitative research, this course will provide an advanced grounding in qualitative research methods and design. It will cover elements of epistemology, research design, proposal writing and ethics review designed to move students’ thesis projects forward. While the focus will be on phenomenology, grounded theory and ethnography, other traditions of inquiry may be accommodated according to student’s interests. This is a credit/no credit course.

This course will introduce students to quantitative research methods, including an overview of philosophical issues, study design, sampling methods, using and creating standardized measures, questionnaire design, ethics review, secondary data analysis, and meta-analysis. The course will also link current trends in evidence-based practice to the research enterprise.

Prerequisites:  SWK6301H Intermediate Statistics, or equivalent.

This course is designed for graduate students in social work and other disciplines who do not specialize in statistics but who need a significant familiarity with the most commonly used statistical techniques. The course will provide students with the opportunity to understand and apply major statistical techniques in social work research.

The course has two major goals: (1) that students can correctly identify and apply the most suitable technique for their own research and (2) that students become capable of critically examining the appropriateness of statistical techniques used in the literature. Emphasis will be placed on the understanding of the assumptions of each statistical procedure, applying the procedure and interpreting computer outputs and not on the mathematical derivations of the formulas. Students will become competent users of SPSS computer software through hands on assignment applying the major statistical techniques to different data sets.

Content

Several basic statistical techniques will be presented including: (1) Survival analysis, (2) Factor analysis and (3) Meta analysis. The software package SPSS will be used to apply the above methods on small-to-medium size data files. A brief overview of the following topics will be presented: (1) Reliability and validity of measurements, (2) Structural equation modeling and (3) Multi-level modeling. Students will have the opportunity to select two more topics for discussion.

Guest lecturer John Fluke, PhD

This course will address theories, empirical literature, research, and practice in the area of child welfare decision making. Research specific to child welfare research topics include approaches and analytic techniques that support decision making research and topics such as study design, data construction techniques, receiver operator characteristics analysis, structural equation modelling, and multi-level modelling.

Dr. Fluke is also known for his innovative and informative evaluation work in the areas of child welfare administrative data analysis, workload and costing, and performance and outcome measurement for children and family services. As a research manager, he has directed research and evaluation projects focused on maltreatment surveillance data, children’s mental health, child protective service risk and safety assessment, expedited permanency, guardianship, family group decision-making, trauma services, adoption and screening. He also conducts national child maltreatment data collection and analysis, and has worked with data collection programs in Canada, Saudi Arabia and the U.S., as well as for UNICEF.

Open to all PhD students. Open to MSW students with restrictions.

Writing articles for publication in peer-reviewed journals is a crucial skill for academics and researchers. The process of successfully developing and writing manuscripts, identifying target journals, submitting manuscripts, and responding to editor and reviewer comments requires specific knowledge and skills, and an understanding of strategies to better position your research to promote acceptance and impact. This course is designed to provide an opportunity for doctoral students and select advanced (year 2) MSW students to develop and enhance relevant skills and knowledge by working on a specific writing project that can be submitted for publication. Potential manuscript topics include a broad spectrum of social work and allied disciplines, research methods and approaches. (Students may work with data and/or text from a joint research project [e.g., with a colleague or faculty member], however all assignments submitted for the course must be the student’s written work.)

Admission to the course is open to PhD students in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. MSW students and graduate students from other faculties must submit a 1-2-page sample of your writing (preferably research-focused) and a 1/2-page description of what you intend to focus on in the course. Both are to be submitted to the instructor before being approved to register. Inquiries about the course and/or writing samples and your intended course focus can be submitted to Professor Peter A. Newman by e-mail (p.newman@utoronto.ca); please include “SWK6503” in the e-mail subject line.

Conducting scoping reviews and other systematic reviews has become an essential skill for academic researchers, including PhD students. Scoping reviews are conducted to identify research gaps, to explore conceptual and methodological issues, and serve to establish the state of the evidence in a particular field. PhD students have been increasingly undertaking scoping reviews to support their thesis work; however, they often lack a methodological foundation to support a rigorous review. This course will provide the basis for understanding the purposes, types, and methods of scoping reviews, including PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines and innovative approaches. Students will work with the instructor, with input from UofT research librarians, and in peer review with other students, to hone their research question and objectives; develop a search strategy with search terms and appropriate databases; identify inclusion/exclusion criteria; implement the search using Covidence software; and conduct data extraction and synthesis. In the second half of the course, students will write up their review and gain knowledge and skills in selecting a target journal, crafting an abstract and cover letter, and navigating the journal submission process, with individual feedback from the instructor. The final assignment is a draft of a manuscript that may be submitted for publication.

Admission to the course is open to PhD students in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. MSW students and graduate students from other faculties must submit a 1–2-page sample of your writing (preferably research-focused) and a 1/2-page description of what you intend to focus on in the course. Both are to be submitted to the instructor before being approved to register. Inquiries about the course and/or writing samples and your intended course focus can be submitted to Prof. Newman by e-mail (p.newman@utoronto.ca); please include “SWK6503” in the e-mail subject line.

Emerging in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, social work is rooted in a commitment to social justice, equality, and the well-being of individuals and communities. This seminar, focusing primarily on the North American context, will explore the social, political, and economic forces, alongside key individuals, ideas, institutions, events, and movements that have shaped the development and evolution of social work. By positing that the interactions, tensions, and conflicts of values, knowledge, and practice systems both within and beyond social work drive the evolution of the profession’s purpose and legitimacy, the seminar will critically examine contemporary and emergent formulations of social work as a profession, science, and discipline. Students will reflect on their own place and role in the history and future of social work practice, education, and knowledge creation.

Open to all PhD students. Open to MSW students with restrictions.

Scoping reviews have become an essential element of academic and professional research. Scoping reviews are conducted to identify research gaps, to explore conceptual and methodological issues, and to establish the state of the evidence on a particular topic. PhD students have been increasingly undertaking scoping reviews to support comprehensive or thesis work or to publish in their areas of interest; however, they often lack a methodological foundation and experience to support a rigorous review. This course will provide the basis for understanding the purposes, types, and methods of scoping reviews, including PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses—Scoping Review) guidelines as well as innovative approaches. Students will work with the instructor, with input from a U of T research librarian, writing instructor, advanced PhD students, and in peer review with other students, to hone their research question and objectives, develop a search strategy with search terms and appropriate databases, and identify study inclusion/exclusion criteria. Students will then implement a search on select databases, use Covidence software to manage the review process, and conduct data extraction and synthesis of select studies. Students will then write up a pilot review and gain knowledge and skills in selecting an appropriate target journal, crafting an abstract and cover letter, and navigating the journal submission process, with individual feedback from the instructor. The final assignment is a draft of scoping review methods and preliminary findings to create a foundation for scoping review manuscript development and publication.

Admission to the course is open to all PhD students in the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. For MSW students as well as graduate students from other faculties, please submit a 1–2-page sample of your writing (preferably research-focused) and a 1/2-page description of what topic you intend to focus on in the course. Both are required to be submitted to the instructor before being approved to register. Inquiries about the course and/or writing samples and your intended research focus can be submitted to Prof. Newman by e-mail (p.newman@utoronto.ca); please include “SWK6504-2023” in the e-mail subject line.

The Comprehensive Exam Seminar is a required credit/non-credit seminar designed to provide doctoral students in the second year of their program with an opportunity to refine their thesis topic and develop their comprehensive proposal. Meetings are every week during the fall session.

This half-course is the core masters level course in the second option of study in palliative and supportive care. It will offer students a broad, interdisciplinary approach to current issues in Palliative and Supportive Care, by allowing students from a wide range of disciplines and departments (e.g., Palliative Medicine, Psychiatry, Social Work, Nursing, Philosophy, Law, Religious Studies, Health Policy Management and Evaluation, Information, Pharmacy, Psychology, Rehabilitation Science, Public Health Sciences, Sociology, etc.) an opportunity to explore, understand and apply diverse concepts relevant to palliative and supportive care. Each seminar will consist of a presentation by a faculty member, followed by a discussion. The seminars will take place for a full session on a bi-weekly basis and will be complemented by weekly seminar reading assignments, 3 short essays, and a 10-page essay at session’s end exploring one of the seminar topics in further detail.

This is the second psychosocial oncology course offered through the Canadian Association of Psychosocial Oncology (CAPO) IPODE* project. It provides graduate students in 5 disciplines (medicine, nursing, psychology, social work and spiritual care) with an opportunity to explore the interprofessional care of families experiencing cancer along the illness trajectory from diagnosis through to bereavement or long term survivorship.

Students from other disciplines also may be interested and are welcome. Using case based learning in small interprofessional groups, students will explore a variety of key learning themes relevant to the interprofessional care of families. Themes that will be addressed include: family theory, models of family and couple counseling/therapy, family assessment, therapeutic conversations and interventions.

Case examples will be drawn from the experience of families across the cancer illness trajectory, from diagnosis through to death and dying, bereavement and long term survivorship. Small group work will allow students to develop a rich understanding of the cancer experience from the perspective of families, as well as competency in family assessment, intervention, interprofessional collaboration, and cultural safety. Attention to diversity will be integrated throughout the course.

*IPOPE is the Interprofessional Psychosocial Oncology Distance Education project (http://www.ipode.ca/)

Required course for Collaborative Program in Aging and the Life Course

The seminar is the core course for Masters students enrolled in the Collaborative Program on Aging and the Life Course, and is also open to other graduate students on application to the instructor. The course aims to familiarize students with the major theoretical ideas and significant facts about the social and social psychological aspects of aging. The former include the socioeconomic status of the aged in Canada, their family relationships, work and retirement patterns, and needs for social and health services. The objective is to provide general analytic tools for understanding the social context of the aging individual and the implications for society of population aging. The social psychological aspects of aging examined in the course focus on age-related changes in the individual’s reaction to and interaction with others, as related to self-concept and other psychological and social variables. The emphasis is on the development of critical and comprehensive knowledge of theory in social gerontology and the life course.

This course examines the interface between health and aging. It examines a range of issues that affect the health of older adults. The focus of this course is on the development of a multidimensional understanding of the factors that affect older adults as they age. A widespread view of aging in Canadian society is one of dependency, disability and decline. However, older adults are living longer, healthier lives. How can health be maximized in old age? What public policies are required to support healthy aging? What are the determinants of health of the aging population? How do social and cultural factors affect the health of older adults? What strategies are available to promote and enhance a healthy aging population? These are examples of questions that this course will address.

The seminar is required of graduate students in the Collaborate Master’s Program in Asia-Pacific Studies.

This is a non-FIFSW course.  Course enrolment is managed by the host department.

The core seminar in Asia-Pacific Studies examines the dynamics of transformation in the Asia-Pacific in relation to a number of theoretical debates in history and the social sciences. The seminar is required of graduate students in the Collaborate Master’s Program in Asia-Pacific Studies.

The Coordinating Seminar: Ethnic, Immigration and Pluralism Studies, EIP3000H, provides an interdisciplinary overview of core research topics in the study of citizenship, immigration, diversity, civic integration, racial and socioeconomic barriers to admission, accommodation of minority communities, the rise of populist nationalism, the mobility divide, stratification in migration, ethnic capital, intersectionality, multiculturalism, global inequality, sovereignty, competing conceptions of territory and peoplehood, and the future of membership boundaries in an interdependent world. These developments will be explored in a broad comparative and international context. Students enrolled in the course will be exposed to cutting edge research from a wide range of disciplines and institutional settings.

This is a non-FIFSW course.  Course enrolment is managed by the host department.

Required course for Collaborative Program in Women’s Studies

This is a non-FIFSW course.  Course enrolment is managed by the host department.

This course will focus on philosophical questions raised by interdisciplinary scholarship in women’s studies and the use of feminist methodologies in particular disciplines. This course is intended to examine critically central philosophical questions raised by interdisciplinary scholarship in Women’s Studies, Critical Gender Studies and by the use of feminist methodologies in particular disciplines. Questions such as the following will be explored:

1. What, if any, is the theoretical basis for the distinctions between women-centred, non-sexist and feminist research?
2. How do Women’s Studies scholarship and research generate new paradigms of knowledge and subjectivity?
3. How does Women’s Studies scholarship critically relate to dominant discipline paradigms in humanities, social sciences, physical sciences and behavioural sciences?

Offered Winter 2014

This course, offered jointly by the Departments of Social Work, Education, Psychiatry, Psychology and Nursing, is designed to introduce participants to a multidisciplinary range of approaches to the understanding of parenting. Levels of analysis extend from the psychology of parenting to the societal context. Research, theory and professional practice are sampled in a number of disciplines. The course is team-taught by faculty members from the participating departments, one of whom will be designated as course coordinator each year. In order to facilitate continuity and comparison across different disciplines, topics and instructors, the course is organized around key themes. In addition to the multidisciplinary teaching, diversity is ensured by the rich and varied backgrounds of the students. Throughout the seminar discussions, students are encouraged to synthesize their academic and work/practice experience.

This is a non-FIFSW course.  Course enrolment is managed by the host department.

Approved elective course for Collaborative Program in Women’s Studies

This is a non-FIFSW course.  Course enrolment is managed by the host department.

This course will begin by critically evaluating the literature on the incidence, distribution and causes of wife abuse. Central to the evaluation of this literature will be feminist critiques of the category women and the homogeneity of experience implied by its use, and the more specific critiques of much of the wife abuse literature which have been voiced by women of colour, lesbians and immigrant women. We will then consider several specific issues relating to practice with women who experience abuse in their intimate relationships. These will likely include a critical examination of the medicalization of woman abuse and the role of programs for batterers; of ethical dilemmas (duties to warn, duties to contact child welfare authorities); of record-keeping and the use of records by defence lawyers; and of the efficacy of criminalization strategies.

Required course for Collaborative Program in Ethnic and Pluralism Studies

This is a non-FIFSW course.  Course enrolment is managed by the host department.

This course provides theoretic and methodological tools for the interdisciplinary study of ethnic and race relations, and illustrates their application to specific institutional sectors of society. The first half of the course presents a review of basic theory and methods for addressing five key topics: ethnic groups and their demography, ethnic status and racism, ethnic communities and the incorporation of ethnic groups and race relations within selected institutional settings, and emphasizes the use of research from diverse disciplines in understanding theoretical and policy issues arising in each.

The specific institutional settings selected for emphasis may include: employment relations and the workplace, social and medical service delivery, policing and the administration of justice, and citizenship and immigration policy. The focus will be on ethnic and race relations in Canada, and where possible, comparisons will be made with other advanced industrial societies including the United States, Europe and Australia.

Required course for Collaborative Program in Addiction Studies

This is a non-FIFSW course.  Course enrolment is managed by the host department.

This course provides an overview of issues related to the determinants and consequences of alcohol, tobacco and other psychoactive substance use along with a summary of strategies concerned with the prevention and treatment of addiction problems. Guest presentations by authorities in various disciplines.

This graduate seminar provides an overview of the theory and practice of the field, including a historical review, an examination of contemporary issues and debates and methodological considerations. Participants in the course will draw significant insights for community development practice from the various theoretical positions on the nature of society, social change and social mobilization. The course explores the various models of community development in relation to their goals, processes and outcomes. It incorporates contributions from the five graduate units participating in the CD collaborative program: Adult Education and Community Development; Counselling Psychology; Program in Planning, Public Health Sciences; and the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.

The objectives of the course are:

1. to develop an appreciation of community development both as a change process and as an interdisciplinary field;
2. to provide a broad understanding of the scope and range of activities in community development in Canada and internationally;
3. to develop an understanding of the main traditions, theoretical debates, successful experiences, and research findings in community development;
4. to develop an understanding of the basic skills needed to work with diverse communities;
5. to introduce students to the research and scholarship on community development undertaken by faculty and students in the five collaborating units.

This is a non-FIFSW course.  Course enrolment is managed by the host department.