The Department of Social Work allows social work majors to focus on changing and improving lives, working to empower people to achieve their full potential. This disciplines is concerned with advancing social justice and human rights. Not only do social work majors focus on understanding contemporary social issues and policies, they also investigate ways to alleviate social problems.
The Department Social Work offers a major in social work and minors in addiction studies, social work, and gerontology.
Social Work Programs
While working toward your BSW, you will have an opportunity to take courses that will increase your knowledge and prepare you to apply the functional knowledge of the Social Work profession. These classes take on hard questions about diversity, social change, ethical interactions, inventions, and engagement with people, communities, and systems.
Have you ever thought about helping those who are living with a substance use disorder? Is there a possibility that you may engage an individual who is living with a substance use disorder in your future professions? Are you interested in learning the answers to questions like “Why can’t they just stop?” or “What does the brain really look like on drugs?” Then this may be the minor for you.
Addiction Studies Minor Program RequirementsFeatured News
Social Work at the Mount
As practitioners, social workers are trained to help people address personal and systemic barriers to optimal living. They are employed to effect positive change with individuals, families, groups, and entire communities.
As a profession, social workers frequently use their collective power to pass laws and establish policies that give more people access to community services and benefits, improving the quality of life for everyone.
Social work is the only helping profession that requires social justice advocacy as part of its professional code of ethics and is, therefore, a large workforce mandated to advance the rights of the most vulnerable in society. For more than 120 years, the social work profession in the United States has helped bend the arc of justice, making our nation a more equitable and inclusive place.
There are more than 700,000 professional social workers employed in the United States and more than three million worldwide. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics continues to identify social work as one of the fastest-growing professions in the United States.
Other government sources report there are more clinically trained social workers providing mental health and behavioral health services than any other professional discipline in the nation.
Social workers are on the front lines, helping people overcome crises. In fact, social workers are everywhere people need help navigating tough life challenges. They contribute to interdisciplinary care teams in schools, hospitals, mental health centers, nonprofits, corporations, the military—and in local, state, and federal government. Many social work professionals also own private consultation practices.
- To prepare social work students to competently serve client systems at the micro, mezzo, and macros levels of practice, with the ability to work in varied contexts of the social work profession, and to recognize the changing nature of these contexts by incorporating new research and evidence-based techniques into their practice settings.
- To enhance social work students' intercultural competence, particularly students' ability (1) to engage in diversity and difference in practice, and (2) to advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice.
- To promote the application of social work competencies in ongoing community engagement, service to others, and social responsibility.
- To prepare students to apply the knowledge, ethical principles, values, and competencies of a generalist practice social worker within various community settings.
Field Education
Real-World Learning:
Fieldwork provides on-the-job learning experience under close supervision by a faculty member and an agency professional. A variety of agencies in the Greater Cincinnati region serve as fieldwork sites, including mental health facilities, crisis centers for domestic violence, homeless shelters, community service agencies, foster care programs, and nursing homes.
As a part of the BSW experience, students have the unique opportunity of putting what they have learned into action. Field Education sets Social Work from other helping professions, as this is not just an internship but an opportunity to work under the guidance of a Social Worker and demonstrate competency in the areas of focus while in the field. This experience provides the student real social work experience prior to graduation and allows them to explore the populations they may want to work with in the future. This is where you get start making social change even before you graduate.
Students have had the honor and privilege of partnering with various community partners during their time in practicum. These community partners serve a wide variety of individuals, communities, and systems. These partners are pivotal to social work education and we are thankful for their ongoing investment in our students and our communities.
Student Clubs
Phi Alpha:
Social work students are encouraged to join Phi Alpha Honor Society, a national social work honor society that connects social work students, faculty, and practitioners. Phi Alpha promotes humanitarian goals and ideas, fosters high educational standards for social workers, and encourages membership from those who pursue excellence in scholarship and achievement within social work.
During the 2021-2022 academic year, Zeta Tau—the Mount St. Joseph University Chapter of Phi Alpha—will be creating a peer mentorship program at the Mount for incoming and transfer students.
For more information on Phi Alpha, click here.
Social Work Club:
Social Work Club provides a closer bond and connection among Mount students, promotes humanitarian goals and ideals on campus and in the community, and develops the talents of students in service to and for the greater good of the campus and surrounding community.
Faculty & Staff
When you major in Social Work, your major is more than just learning about the theory of Social Work but also learning and practicing the profession of Social Work. Here at Mount St. Joseph University, your faculty have a vast array of experience in the Social Work profession. From providing therapeutic services to individuals living with substance use disorders, to implementing and evaluating program changes at hospitals and universities, these experiences are woven into the classroom content to help social work theory come to life!
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Roxana Holland Recently Interviewed by Local 12 on the Childcare Crisis