SWM5004 · Foundations for social work practice

Overview

This unit is designed to equip you with the foundational knowledge and skills for effective social work practice. It establishes the baseline capabilities critical for optimal performance in your first field work placement. The focus of this unit is on your application of the micro skills known to be common to effective client engagement and therapeutic change. You will master a beginner level practice competency built from an understanding of the self and your implicit biases, and developing a non -judgemental lens to conceptualise and frame client problems. From this position you will learn how to connect with a broad range of service users with a focus on individuals and families. You will develop the building blocks of a therapeutic alliance that reinforces and reflects collaborative decision making, deep listening, open questioning and reflection in client interactions. This unit privileges the ‘doing’ of your social work practice through undertaking role plays, case studies and structured simulations in small classes as the platform of learning. This unit emphasises your strengths-based approach across the lifespan and explores the interrelated dimensions of a person’s life such as biological, psychological, social, cultural and spiritual. You will critically appraise and practice administering a biopsychosocial assessment. You will also identify risk and protective factors at individual, family, community and societal levels that impede or enhance child, adolescent and adult development You will explore the symbiotic relationship between assessment and intervention and the common skills that form the foundation of accurate and effective assessment tools and interventions in social work practice to enhance wellbeing and reduce risk.

Offerings

Assessment

The Handbook does not list a final examination among the assessment items. That is not a guarantee there is none.

Assessment details may change. Please refer to the assessment information in Moodle closer to the start of the teaching period.

Requisites

Learning outcomes

1. Implement a person-centred, non-judgemental approach to direct practice social work with individuals and families
2. Develop a therapeutic alliance with clients in direct practice from the beginning phases of engagement
3. Apply micro skills common to effective social work practice across a range of diverse service contexts and fields of practice
4. Articulate and justify the adoption of explanatory theories, practice tools or therapeutic framework applied to case conceptualisations across contexts in social work
5. Analyse critically personal values, experiences and assumptions and identify implicit biases that align with or diverge from the Australian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics
6. Articulate an awareness of ‘self’ as a practitioner and its potential impact on the professional helping relationship
7. Identify the biopsychosocial developmental needs that arise in the life course and apply this knowledge to social work practice
8. Evaluate the risk and protective factors of an individual/family and their circumstances by undertaking a biopsychosocial assessment
9. Examine the ways in which power structures disadvantage specific groups with particular consideration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and use strength-based approaches to redress marginalisation
10. Analyse critically the elements of effective social work practice in assessment and intervention, and apply evidence-informed approaches to understand, assess and intervene effectively with individuals and families

Workload

6 hours of teacher directed study per week, including a 1.5-hour seminar/lecture, 2-hour tutorial; this is supplemented by three 2-hour Clinical Practice Lab (CPL) sessions over the semester. The remaining hours involve directed readings and class preparation, along with guided reflection. 12 hours per week of self-directed study.

Student experience, not official rules. Nothing here changes what the Handbook says.