SWK 6678: Trauma-Informed Child Welfare Practice
Credits: 3
Key Skills: Differentiate between different types of childhood trauma; evaluate different behavioral outcomes of childhood trauma; match childhood and adolescent behaviors to neglectful experiences; develop evidence-based intervention strategies; explain theories of treatment for child victims of trauma; develop treatment plans; distinguish between individual child and family treatment plans; apply interventions that foster resilience in child victims of trauma
Description: Trauma-Informed Child Welfare Practice is an elective in the online master of social work program, teaching students how to critique and appropriately apply culturally sensitive methods of assessment and intervention for resolving the effects of trauma in children and adolescents. By demonstrating familiarity with social work values and ethics as they relate to trauma assessment, intervention, and prevention, social work practitioners will gain valuable insight into how cultural status, including race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and disability status are applied in working with child victims of trauma.
The course begins with a focus on the theoretical and neurophysiological understandings of these traumas and their effects on childhood development, as well as the social work challenges involved in treating this population. Topics include childhood sexual abuse, neglect, poverty and racism, substance abuse, and violence. Toward the end of the course students will engage with key evidence-based principles to develop treatment plans and interventions that build resilience in child survivors of trauma.