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Free State Social Work

Free State Social Work

This course explores the systemic problems that contribute to stress, trauma, and burnout in the social work profession, while examining the recent addition of self-care as an ethical mandate to the revised 2021 NASW Code of Ethics. The course highlights mezzo and macro factors affecting the profession that include workforce and employment conditions such as stressful working conditions, low pay, inadequate support, heavy workloads, and poor staffing. Instead of viewing self-care as a personal responsibility of social workers, the course reframes self-care as a social justice issue.

Free State Social Work

This course uses communication theory to explore the benefits and challenges of communication technology on the social worker-client relationship. The course examines the importance of resolving ethical issues related to ICT use, digital literacy, and social work practice. The following ethical issues are highlighted: boundaries, client well-being, professional competence, privacy, confidentiality, cultural competence, and social justice.

Free State Social Work

Free State Social Work

This course explores social work boundary issues and ethical conflicts that result from a growing use of technology and remote contact with clients. The course examines three forms of boundary challenges encountered by social workers in the digital age: ethical judgments, ethical mistakes, and ethical misconduct.

Free State Social Work

This course explores ethical implications and challenges related to private equity investment in the field of social services. The course offers an overview of private equity in social services and uses the NASW Code of Ethics as a guide to address potential concerns. Ethical standards related to informed consent, conflicts of interest, professional integrity, administration and commitments to employers, dishonesty, fraud, and deception, and social injustice, anti-racism, and social and political action are highlighted.

Free State Social Work

Explores common mental disorders among college students, including depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Evidence-based clinical interventions and treatments are highlighted along with strategies for working with diverse student populations.

Free State Social Work

This course explores the unique needs and challenges of older adults with serious mental illness and provides an overview of evidence-based psychosocial interventions. Five interventions are examined including Assertive Community Treatment, Cognitive Behavioral Social Skills Training, Functional Adaptation Skills Training, Integrated Illness Management and Recovery, and Helping Older People Experience Success.

Free State Social Work

This course provides an overview of concurrent substance use and concurrent substance use disorder, exploring risk factors, protective factors, screening, assessment, and treatment. Three treatment approaches are examined including FDA-approved pharmacotherapy with counseling, contingency management with FDA-approved pharmacotherapy and counseling, and twelve-step facilitation therapy with FDA-approved pharmacotherapy and counseling.

Free State Social Work

This course offers an overview of the behavioral health service needs, challenges, and opportunities of individuals experiencing homelessness. The course highlights five evidence-based interventions, including medication for opioid use disorder, motivational interviewing, intensive case management, Community Reinforcement Approach, and peer support.

Free State Social Work

This course explores recent research on stimulant use disorders along with best treatment practices. The course examines how cocaine, methamphetamine, and prescription stimulants affect neurobiology, the brain, and behavior. Common medical and psychological complications are discussed. The course describes the best supported treatment approaches; contingency management is highlighted as the primary psychosocial treatment for stimulant disorders. Strategies for supporting patients in treatment and recovery are given.

Free State Social Work

This course explores the unique needs of special populations experiencing stimulant use disorders. The course examines treatment and care considerations for racial/ethnic minorities, women, men who have sex with men, the transgender and gender nonbinary community, adolescents, people experiencing homelessness, rural populations, people involved with the criminal justice system, people with or at risk for HIV/AIDs, and more. Strategies are given for improving engagement, rapport, and treatment outcomes.

Free State Social Work

This course explores current research related to medications to treat opioid use disorder. The course offers an overview of methadone, buprenorphine, and naltrexone and compares their effectiveness and how they work. Misconceptions, misunderstandings, and diversion risks are discussed. The course examines opioid use disorder treatment for special populations, including those with HIV, those in the military, those in the criminal justice system, and pregnant mothers.

Free State Social Work

This course is the first of a 3-part series on recovery from problematic substance use. The course provides an introduction to recovery-oriented counseling and describes a shift in SUD treatment away from a model of specialized treatment that focuses primarily on abstinence and toward a different model of integrated care that is strengths-based, client-driven, and offers a broad range of services.

Free State Social Work

This course is the second of a 3-part series on recovery from problematic substance use and offers a framework for supporting recovery with counseling. The course explores strengths-based, recovery-oriented counseling and includes a discussion of values, recovery capital, unconditional positive regard, cues for health and well-being, self-efficacy, and motivation.

Free State Social Work

This course examines counseling approaches for promoting harm reduction, preventing recurrence, sustaining recovery, and promoting a healthy life. It explores evidence-based practices including trauma-informed care, motivational interviewing, cognitive-behavioral therapy, contingency management, mindfulness, acceptance and commitment therapy, and psychoeducation. The course also examines four domains that assist a life in recovery: health, home, purpose, and community.

Free State Social Work

Free State Social Work

This course explores opioid use disorder and reviews trends, treatments, and approaches. The course offers an overview of the opioid crisis as one of our biggest public health challenges. Benefits and limitations of existing treatment options are examined with a discussion of naloxone and MOUDs.

Free State Social Work

This course explores prolonged grief disorder and highlights existing psychological therapies and models. The course differentiates between normal and abnormal grief and offers an overview of the DSM-5 diagnosis of prolonged grief disorder, predictors of prolonged grief, and maintenance factors. The reading highlights therapies, including the cognitive model of PTSD as a framework for treating traumatic grief.

Free State Social Work

This course explores the topic of depression in cancer patients and offers a discussion of risk factors, symptoms, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. Common depression screening tools are identified along with suggested questions for the clinical interview. Interventions including coping strategies, antidepressant medications, and psychotherapies are highlighted. Cancer is a risk factor for suicide, and information on the assessment and management of suicide risk in cancer patients is given.

Free State Social Work

This course explores considerations and recommendations for addressing HIV and substance use disorders. Topics related to unstable housing, sexual risk-taking, substance use disorder screening, co-occurring mental health disorders, and antiretroviral therapy (ART) are discussed. The course reviews commonly used substances and their impact on HIV and ART.

Free State Social Work

This course reviews recent literature on suicidal thoughts and behaviors in people on the autism spectrum. Emerging research on suicide risk factors, screening, assessment, and treatment is discussed. The course offers the Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide as a possible framework and explores concepts of thwarted belongingness, perceived burdensomeness, and acquired capability for suicide.

Free State Social Work

The course explores PTSD in older adults and at the end of life and identifies clinical considerations for assessment and treatment. The course describes how PTSD and aging may interact in new and challenging ways, resulting in the potential for older adults to experience an exacerbation of symptoms for several reasons. Implications for end of life care are considered and strategies for the management of PTSD symptoms are included.

Free State Social Work