May 04, 2024  
2022-2023 Course Catalog 
    
2022-2023 Course Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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HSER 1020 - Introduction to Human Services and Social Work

Credits: 3
Hours/Week: Lecture 3 Lab None
Course Description: This course introduces the Human Services field and the Social Work profession. Course topics include the history and foundational concepts of the field, worker roles, potential career and job opportunities, including the kinds of agencies, programs and community resources that employ Human Service workers and Social Workers. Course activities explore counseling skills, common mental health concerns, and the basics of case management.
MnTC Goals
None

Prerequisite(s): None
Corequisite(s): None
Recommendation: Students should take HSER 1020 and HSER 1030  concurrently

Major Content
  1. Foundational concepts and historical background
  2. Policies and programs, interventions, and the role of current demographic trends
  3. Ethical and multicultural issues
  4. Social service workers
  5. Basic counseling skills, and theoretical approaches in counseling
  6. Crisis intervention and trauma response including:
    1. Suicide prevention
    2. PTSD
    3. Community disasters
    4. Military trauma
  7. Challenges facing clients including:
    1. Mental illness
    2. Poverty
    3. Disabilities
    4. Crime/violence
    5. Substance abuse
    6. Partner abuse
    7. Sexual assault
    8. HIV/AIDS
  8. Case management
  9. Macrolevel practice - leadership and organizational structure

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this course students will be able to:

  1. describe the historical evolution of the social work and human services professions.
  2. identify major fields of practice in the social work and human services professions.
  3. explain generalist social work as a profession.
  4. describe the roles and responsibilities of the social work and human services profession within the social welfare system.
  5. differentiate among professional social worker’s responsibility and other service providers’ responsibilities.
  6. explain the social work and the human services perspective on human diversity, oppression, and privilege.
  7. explain the values of the profession and how they are expressed in the NASW Code of Ethics as the practice framework for generalist social work practice.
  8. demonstrate professional demeanor in behavior; appearance; and oral, written, and electronic communication.
  9. assess their comfort level to work with persons different from themselves.
  10. describe the role that social workers and human service professionals play in addressing social problems.
  11. describe the impact of socioeconomic factors, social justice issues, and systems of oppression on populations at risk.

Competency 1 (1-6)
None
Competency 2 (7-10)
None


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