Western Consortium for Rural Social Work Education (WCRSWE)

Faculty Seminar

October 27, 2007

Participants

Alaska
Elizabeth Sirles
Director and Professor
School of Social Work
University of Alaska Anchorage
Randy Magen
Professor
School of Social Work
University of Alaska Anchorage / Wyoming
Mona Schatz
Director, Division of Social Work
College of Health Sciences
University of Wyoming
John Tracy
Professor
Division of Social Work
University of Wyoming
Idaho
Roy “Butch” Rodenhiser
Director
School of Social Work
Boise State University
William Rainford
MSW Coordinator/ Associate Professor
School of Social Work
Boise State University / WICHE Staff
Susan Vermeer Lopez
Project Coordinator
WICHE
Jere Mock
Director of Programs and
Services/Student Exchange
Programs
WICHE
Nevada
Denise Montcalm
Director
School of Social Work
University of Nevada, Reno
Linda Anngela
Assistant Professor
School of Social Work
University of Nevada, Reno
Mary E. Hylton
Assistant Professor
School of Social Work
University of Nevada, Reno
Utah
Jannah Hurn Mather
Dean
College of Social Work
University of Utah
Norma Harris
Professor
College of Social Work
University of Utah

Welcome and WCRSWE Overview

After a brief welcome from Jere Mock, WICHE’s vice president for programs and services, participants introduced themselves with their names and universities and interest and experience in rural social work education. The WCRSWE is moving from providing more access to social work electives (spring semester, 2008) to an integrated curriculum that will allow participating institutions to collaboratively offer a certificate in rural social work education. One possible model for an online certificate is Florida State University, which has an online certificate in child welfare. Developers of the proposed certificate in rural social work education also need to determine that there is an employment market for the students who earn this certificate.

State funding and identified needs in this area

Jannah Mather mentioned that the Utah mental health director is in favor of this certificate and identified some funding possibilities through the state, and Mona Schatz said that in Wyoming, they had given back $100,000 that was earmarked for this certificate program because the program had not been created yet. Idaho has also received a letter of support for this program from their state director of mental health. The Alaska mental health authority has worked to make the University of Southern Florida certificate in child mental health available to faculty members in Alaska. In Nevada, though, they have lost their rural mental health positions. The group also discussed whether the certificate program can be self-funded and examined the differences between institutions and how they fund faculty members to teach courses online. For example, online programs are self funded at Boise State University while they are part of faculty teaching loads at other institutions.

Certificate program

Participants discussed building on the foundation of the advanced generalist degree so that students have the skills to succeed in rural settings. Each program has its own curriculum, and the purpose is to add a rural post graduate mental health component. The goal of this faulty summit is to specify courses that will help prepare students based on the core advanced generalist curriculum. In addition, while different institutions offer different options, these will be accommodated within the WCRSWE certificate program. For example, the University of Alaska Anchorage may not offer a certificate through this program, and other institutions may or may not offer a graduate minor. Partners agreed that this flexibility is acceptable within the parameters of this program. The purpose is to agree on the content of a rural mental health program, and each institution can implement this within the existing offerings of their own institutions.

Faculty

There was discussion of whether faculty members might also engage in shared teaching as part of this program. The basic introduction courses to rural mental health had not been created, and this is part of the charge of the faculty and directors gathered for this faculty seminar.

Contents of rural/ frontier mental health courses

The values of ethics and logistics for rural practitioners were discussed as well as safety, confidentiality and emphasis on practice. The University of Wyoming has some rural practice materials to offer. Participants discussed whether courses with focus areas such as gerontology, poverty and substance abuse should be separate courses or be included in the content of one course. The group also discussed the differences between a rural and non-rural curriculum and how will this certificate program differ from the advanced generalist curriculum. Beth Sirles advised that given the focus on Western states, the curriculum should include Native American issues with cultural competencies. It might also be helpful for training to include helping rural professionals position themselves as supervisors for future field placements.

Participants continued with a discussion on what makes a rural/ frontier social work curriculum different including factors such as geography, population density, rural culture and the service network. Cultural dimensions also include a level of strength found in rural/frontier communities including self- efficacy and informal networks. Additional elements of the certificate program that were discussed included rural context, practice elements, technology, program evaluation and grant writing.

Electives

In the short term, sharing elective courses is a productive activity for this group as fewer elective courses are offered at a distance. Currently, there are four elective offerings for members of this consortium.

Draft of three core courses for the WCRSWE graduate certificate in rural mental health

The group discussed the content of the core courses that would be developed for the rural social work education certificate, both with the entire group and with the group of faculty members.

The group assumed that the curriculum will include both core courses and electives and the content of the core courses are outlined in draft form below. Electives for the certificate program would be decided at a later date, possibly based on the current offerings of member institutions.

Rural Social Work contextual factors including community practice in rural areas. This will be a survey course including topics such as:

  • Culture and diversity
  • Boundaries
  • Self-sustaining professionalism
  • Supervision and supervising
  • Values and ethics on confidentiality
  • Practice uniqueness
  • Safety
  • Indigenous content
  • Tele-behavioral health

Additional course topics might include:

  • Community practice in rural areas
  • Substance abuse/ mental health and medical health
  • Aging/ gerontology
  • Child welfare and family systems (not a survey course)
  • Child welfare, including substance abuse, mental health and domestic violence
  • Crises intervention
  • Rural social work practice
  • Resource development in rural areas
  • New evaluation and technology for service delivery in rural areas (or “Innovations in Practice Technology”) which could be an interdisciplinary course
  • Community/ administration/ policy
  • Ethics and jurisprudence issues
  • Rural social and economic issues
  • Sexual orientation and gender
  • Structures of community
  • Systems

Additional curricular elements include:

  • Mental health
  • Substance abuse
  • Aging (diversity)
  • Health
  • Child welfare and family systems
  • Professional support and consultation
  • Necessity to work outside scope of practice
  • Caregiving for social workers
  • Crises and suicide prevention
  • School social workers

Additional courses may include:

  • Teams and collaboration
  • Team teaching
  • Lab work
  • Computer literacy

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