Online Graduate Certificate in Military Social Work

This course will provide crucial information for assessing and reacting to various crises involving suicide, homicide, intimate partner violence, sexual violence, sexual abuse, bereavement/grief, substance use, natural disasters, wars, emergency response in the community and in schools, and terrorism. Practical applications and policy implications for various crisis situations will be presented. The crisis task model will be used to process crisis situations, understand crucial information about a crisis, clinical considerations, and practical experiences on every crisis topic. Safety issues, self-care, and wellness will also be examined.

This course is intended to establish a social work construct regarding military culture, policy, history, tradition, structure, customs, and ethical dilemmas for social workers. Students will learn to contrast cultural nuances between the military community at large and each military branch. Students will differentiate the therapeutic needs of SMVF (Service Members, Veterans, and their Families) populations compared to civilian populations. This course will allow students to develop the necessary knowledge to demonstrate military-specific cultural differences into their assessments, professional practice, and evaluations.

In this course students will identify the different types of loss experienced by individuals throughout the life cycle and evaluate evidence-based interventions that social workers can implement to address grief related needs. Issues of cultural diversity and norms, gender, social variation in the grief experience, and developmental life stages are considered. Resilience, growth, and the capacities of individuals and families confronted with loss are also examined. Through readings, discussion, and application of the course material to social work practice situations, students will explore theoretical and practice approaches to understanding and addressing issues related to death, loss, and grief. Policy implications are addressed.