Course Title CL LB CLINIC CR
SWK 220 SWK Issues in Client Services 3 0 0 3
This course introduces the professional standards, values, and issues in social services. Topics include confidentiality, assessment of personal values, professional responsibilities, competencies, and ethics. Upon completion, students should be able to understand and discuss multiple ethical issues applicable to social work and apply various decision-making models to current issues. This course is a unique concentration requirement of the Social Service concentration in the Human Services Technology program.

Textbooks:

Congress, E.P. (1999). Social work values and ethics: Identifying and resolving professional dilemmas.  Belmont, CA; Wadsworth Group/Thomson Learning.  ISBN:  0-8304-1492-4.

Kenyon, P. (1999).  What would you do? An ethical case workbook for human service professionals.  Pacific Grove, CA:  Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.  ISBN:  0-534-34938-2.

SWK 220 Syllabus, Fall 2008

Week/Date Reading Homework - usually due by midnight on Sunday Discussion Board question/activity Exam

Week One: Monday, August 25, 2008 to Sunday, August 31, 2008

  1. Read To the reader (page 1) in What would you do?
  2. Read Ethical decision making in human services (chapter one) in What would you do?
  3. Read introduction and overview (chapter one) in Social work values and ethics.

 

Icebreaker/ orientation activities including syllabus quiz and coffee house introduction.

Introduce yourself on the coffee house discussion board (by midnight on Wednesday) and respond to two fellow students by Sunday at midnight. There is no exam for this module/week, other than the orientation quiz that must be completed to enter the course.

Week Two: Tuesday, September 2, 2008 to Sunday, September 7, 2008

  1. Read Exploring your own values (chapter two) in What would you do? 
In What would you do? textbook, complete the following assignments: 1) Exercise on page 23 (How do I view myself and my life right now, 2 to 4 double space pages, 25 points).  2) Exercise on pages 29-20 (Self-esteem rating scale, 1 page with description of your score and patterns you found completing the exercise, 10 points).  3) Exercise on pages 31 to 34, including small group discussion questions (Belief in personal control scale: Revised, 2 to 3 pages, 20 points).  Extra credit:  Complete exercise on page 41 (Pleasant events list). Using the exercise on page 25 of What would you do?, talk about some of the messages you heard as a child and how they might impact your work in human services and social work. No quiz this week.

Week Three:  Monday, September 8, 2008 to Sunday, September 14, 2008

1) Read chapter three in What would you do? 

2) In Social work values and ethics:, read chapter two

In What would you do?: 1) Complete exercise on pp. 43-44 (Goal setting ability) and write a paragraph about the results (5 points).  2) Complete exercise on pp. 48-50 (Conflict resolution), including writing about a conflict at this time and writing about your score (15 points). 3) Complete exercise on pp. 51-59 (Self-assessment) writing about your results; you must also read this before doing the discussion board assignment due Wednesday night. 4) Read chapter three and complete page 62, questions 1 to 4 (12 points).

In Social work values and ethics: 1) Read chapter two and take the quiz starting on page 11.  Discuss your results. What answers surprised you the most? What was surprising about those answers?  (10 points)

 

Talk about the ratings you gave yourself for the following questions on the self-assessment exercise on pp. 51-59 in What would you do? and how this might impact you as an ethical social worker:  #3, #7, #15, #27 and #49.  

 
No quiz this week.

Week Four  Monday, September 15, 2008 to Sunday, September 21, 2008

       

Week Five  Monday, September 22, 2008 to Sunday, September 28, 2008

       

Week Six  Monday, September 29, 2008 to Sunday, October 5, 2008

       

Week Seven  Monday, October 6, 2008 to Sunday, October 12, 2008

       

Week Eight  Wednesday, October 15, 2008 to Sunday, October 19, 2008

       

Week Nine  Monday, October 20, 2008 to Sunday, October 26, 2008

       

Week Ten: Monday, October 27, 2008 to Sunday, November 2, 2008

       

Week Eleven:  Monday, November 3, 2008 to Sunday, November 9, 2008

       

Week Twelve:  Monday, November 10, 2008 to Sunday, November 16, 2008

       

Week Thirteen:  Monday, November 17, 2008 to Sunday, November 23, 2008

       

Week Fourteen: Monday, November 24, 2008 to Wednesday, November 26, 2008 and Monday, December 1, 2008 to Sunday, December 7, 2008

       

Week Fifteen:  Monday, December 8, 2008 to Sunday, December 14, 2008

       

Week Sixteen:  Monday, December 15, 2008 to Saturday, December 21, 2008