Clinical Social Work Concentration

Concentration Description

Students graduating from the Clinical Social Work Concentration at The University of Texas at Austin will possess advanced competence in clinical technologies to become leaders in the provision of human services specific to practice with individuals, families, groups, and communities within a community-based practice context. Leadership in clinical social work practice is the ability to act in ways that are guided by a sense of vision, compassion, the disciplined use of knowledge to affect change, to value complexity and to accept ambiguity in human endeavors, and to use power and authority appropriately and effectively. Moreover, through their skilled applications of clinical technologies, leaders in clinical social work have the capacity to discern and articulate threats to human well-being, challenge conditions that advance psychosocial dysfunction, injustice, and oppression, and to heal and empower other human beings.

Students are taught clinical practice technologies, which are evidenced-based, strengths-based and culturally competent. Students are provided explanations from transtheoretically-based and ecologically focused theories that explain how to purposefully change human behavior. Using a variety of effective treatment models, the best practice skills for intervening with individuals, families, and groups within a community-based practice network are emphasized. Practice interventions taught are competency-based and focus on enhancing client functioning in the areas of strengths and coping, collaboration, problem solving, and self-efficacy, as well as promoting social and economic justice within all systems in the environment. Practice effectiveness and evaluation skills are integrated throughout the coursework. Students further enhance their advanced practice competencies by choosing clinical practice selectives and electives on specialized practice topics.

Theoretical Frameworks

The Clinical Social Work Concentration emphasizes integrative, ecological systems, transtheoretical and innovative perspectives in the teaching of theory and practice. Guiding theoretical frameworks are the ecological-systems theory and the Transtheoretical Model (Prochaska & Norcross, 1999). The purpose of choosing these frameworks is to help students conceptualize clients across a range of perspectives from individual to systemic perspectives, The teaching of diverse therapeutic perspectives provide opportunities for learning the best practices that exist across intervention models.

Ecological Systems Theory

The ecological systems perspective is a popular and widely used framework in social work. The ecological framework targets for change all client and community systems and their interactions that are contributing to the development and maintenance of client problems (e.g., individual, peer group, family, school, work, community agencies). The ecological-systems framework helps clinicians to view clients through various social systems and to integrate techniques across diverse clinical practice perspectives. It has been found to be a useful framework for developing, integrative, empirically supported clinical interventions such as the Multisystemic Therapy (MST), for example. The MST is a family- and community-based treatment approach that is theoretically grounded in a social-ecological framework (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) and family systems (Haley, 1976; Minuchin, 1974). Ecological-systems models like MST emphasize an empirically supported approach for using research knowledge to examine and explain the etiological and risk factors within client systems that promote particular problems. Empirically supported and best practices are used to purposefully design effective interventions and systems of care within a community-based setting. The ecological-systems perspectives further emphasize the need for community development and maintenance strategies within the community systems network to assure that clients continue to progress and change.

The Transtheoretical Model

The Transtheoretical model recognizes that diverse clinical practice models offer important content and processes for client change. There are currently several therapeutic theories and models that show efficacy for various client populations. No single theory or set of interventions can best serve all client needs and problems. Some integration is necessary for learning the best practices for helping clients. There is also a growing evidence within the clinical practice community that there are common factors such as extra-therapeutic, relationship, and expectancy factors, that exist across therapeutic models and account for a considerable percentage of client change (Hubble, Duncan & Miller, 1999). Instead of relying on one theory or set of interventions, the transtheoretical model encourages practitioners to develop ways of practicing that can draw from the best practices that exist across the whole spectrum of clinical technologies that exist across schools of psychotherapy.

The Transtheoretical model emphasizes criteria that 1) respect the richness and applicability of various models. 2) Emphasizes that a model must be measured and validated. 3) Recognizes the importance of understanding the processes involved in human change. It is important for a practitioner, for example, to understand how people change both in and out of therapy and the similarities between these processes (Prochaska & Norcross, 1999, pg. 491-492).

Complimentary Perspectives

The Transtheoretical and Ecological-systems frameworks compliment one another because these perspectives encourage a broad use of clinical and community practice techniques, and the learning of theoretical knowledge that supports those techniques. Both the Transtheoretical model and Ecological-systems perspectives emphasize empirically supported and best practices and the formulation of interventions based on a thorough assessment of target systems to be changed within individuals (intrapersonal), family and community-based networks (interpersonal) and broader societal systems (Individual-societal conflicts). Using the integrative and broad lenses provided by ecological systems and Transtheoretical frameworks, students are taught to use multiple perspectives to guide their practice as they assess, select and evaluate intervention methods across diverse client systems.

Clinical Concentration Objectives

Students graduating from the Clinical Social Work Concentration will be able to:

1. Strategically apply empirically based theories and knowledge to effectively assess the developmental level of the client (based on biological, sociological, cultural, psychological, and spiritual development across the life span), the influence of the client's social systems (individual, family, group, organizational, and community), and the ways in which those systems promote or deter clients in maintaining or achieving health and well-being.
2. Deliberate about human complexity by using multiple perspectives to analyze client's strengths and problems within the larger community and policy contexts.
3. Prioritize selective target systems for intervention: (intrapersonal), family and community-based networks (interpersonal), and broader societal systems (individual-societal conflicts). Interventions will be based on the knowledge and skills that inform the dynamics of human change from different theoretical perspectives.
4. Use multiple theoretical perspectives that are informed by best practices and empirically- based studies to identify, critique, and apply strengths-based interventions to the problems and unique characteristics of diverse populations.
5. Develop and promote self-awareness including the professional use of self to engage and work with diverse client populations and community systems in addressing ethical dilemmas.
6. Identify and utilize culturally relevant perspectives to define, design, implement and evaluate interventions for effective practice with persons from diverse backgrounds and community contexts.
7. Advocate for practice delivery and policies that promote social and economic justice and equity at multiple levels.
8. Utilize quantitative and qualitative research findings to understand scientific, analytic, and ethical approaches to building practice knowledge; provide high quality services; initiate change; improve practice, policy, and service delivery, and evaluate the social worker's own practice.
9. Demonstrate leadership skills in public speaking, marketing, community networking, resource development, interprofessional and interagency collaboration, mediation, and conflict management to promote strengths based solutions to client system problems.
10. Seek and advance continuing education, the efficacy of innovations in practice delivery, and the effective use of clinical supervision to evaluate treatment integrity and adherence to best practices.

Relationship of Concentration Objectives to Mission of the School

The Clinical Social Work Concentration supports the mission of the School of Social Work and the Foundation and MSSW Program objectives by preparing students to be leaders through professional clinical practice within a community practice context. Students develop practice competencies to advocate and intervene with at-risk populations within their ecological context. Research and social justice strongly undergird the practice applications of the Clinical Social Work Concentration as students are taught to integrate diverse theories and policies and their impact on social and economic justice issues. For example, students are prepared to assess and intervene with sensitivity to client gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and socioeconomics of their clients, as well as to demonstrate skill in applying different treatment modalities consistent with their theoretical frameworks. Practice approaches emphasize collaborative practice strategies, and cooperative and egalitarian relationships between practitioners, individual client and family systems, and community agencies as being a necessary condition to alleviate critical social problems and enhance human well-being.

References

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Brower, A. M., & Nurius, P. (1993). Social cognition and individual change: Current theory and counseling guidelines. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Gould, B. B., & DeMuth, D. H. (1994). The global family therapist: Integrating the personal, professional & political. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Guidano, V.F. (1991). The self in process. New York: The Guilford Press.

Haley, J. (1976). Problem-solving therapy: New strategies for effective family therapy. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Hubble, M. A., Duncan, B. L., & Miller, S. D. (1999). The heart and soul of change: what works in therapy. Washington, DC : American Psychological Association.

Mahoney, M. J. (1991). Human change processes: The scientific foundations of psychotherapy. New York: Basic Books.

Minuchin, S. (1974). Families and family therapy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Prochaska, J. O., & Norcross, J. C. (1999). Systems of psychotherapy: A transtheoretical approach. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.