Syllabus

Master of Social Work

SSWO 597 DSM: A Social Work Perspective, Spring A, 2025

Credits - 3

Description

This course is designed to prepare social work students with the Diagnostic Statistical Manual used routinely in the mental health field. It incorporates social work practice skills of assessment while developing diagnostic skills needed in a clinical setting.The use of the DSM and learning material further develops one’s practice skills in an ethical, culturally humble manner including race, culture, sexual identity and medical disorders while identifying psychiatric disorders that clients present when seeking assistance.The learning material includes required textbooks, scholarly literature, case studies and videos representing symptoms aligned with the DSM criteria to promote student obtaining working knowledge for use in clinical practice applicable in the mental health field.

Materials

Learning Objectives and Outcomes

School of Social Work Program Outcomes:

Graduates of the UNE SSWO will demonstrate knowledge, skills, and leadership in the following:

1. Demonstrates ethical and professional behavior.
2. Advance human rights and social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.
3. Engage in anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) in practice.
4. Engage in practice-informed research and research-informed practice.
5. Engage in policy practice.
6. Engage with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
7. Assess individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
8. Intervene with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
9. Evaluate practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

Student Learning Outcomes 

1. Students will become more aware of and reflect on their personal assumptions and biases related to mental illness, culture, race, sexual identity, gender identity and cultural and ethnic diversity when engaged in the diagnostic assessment process. (PROGRAM OBJECTIVE 2; EPAS 2 & 3)  
   • Method of Evaluation: Reflective Journals, Discussion Board Rubrics
2. Students will develop social work skills in the diagnostic process of assessment and selecting a DSM diagnosis while also considering differential  diagnoses. This process of practice is based upon social work knowledge of human behavior and values and is expected to be conducted in a respectful and ethical manner . (PROGRAM OBJECTIVES 2 & 3; EPAS 1,2,3 & 7)
   • Method of Evaluation: Reflective Journals, Discussion Board Rubrics

3. Students will demonstrate their acquired knowledge and professional social work practice skills in aligning presenting symptoms to diagnostic criteria within the DSM. (EPAS 1 & 7)

   • Method of Evaluation: Weeks 4 & 7 Quizzes, Discussion Board Rubrics
4. Students will  consistently communicate with peers in a professional and ethical manner.
   • Method of Evaluation: Discussion Board Rubrics, Reflective Journals
5. Students will include cultural, racial, identity and ethnic diversity when reflecting upon case presentations and self assessment. (PROGRAM OBJECTIVES 1 & 2; EPAS 2 & 3)
   • Method of Evaluation: Discussion Board, Reflective Journals

Assignments

Unless otherwise stated all assignments, discussion posts, and journal entries are due the last day of the week ( Tuesday 11:59 pm EST)

Full-Class Discussions 

Each course week features at least one, sometimes two, full-class discussions. These discussions are most often based on video vignettes of clients representing a specific disorder and will allow students to collaboratively assess for varying diagnoses pertaining to the demonstrated disorders.

Small-Group Discussions

Beginning in Week 2 each week features one small-group discussion. These provide a chance to engage with similar video vignettes to those in full-class discussions but in a more immersive way.

Each week, the group will select somebody to view the case video and to elaborate upon. The lead member will review a video case presentation and write or post a video to the group presenting this case to your peers. The lead is to add additional information that is not present in the video but may promote peer understanding of the case. You have permission to embellish here with demographic information that will support the selected diagnosis. For example, provide a time frame when the symptoms first presented if not present in the video. Add details to a significant event, or who was the primary caretaker if this type of information is not present in the video but needed to determine a diagnosis. The purpose here is to lessen time spent on asking these types of questions and allowing for a greater focus upon the criteria to select a diagnosis.

The members will also watch the case video and read the lead members presentation (or watch their video presentation). The members will address the diagnosis selected and support it from the readings(text/DSM) or critically discuss a differential diagnosis you have selected with support as well.

Individual Reflective Journals

Five weeks feature an individual journal assignment.  The focus of these activities is to reflect on culture, diversity, and our biases. Each week will feature a vignette of a situation dealing with race and culture. Students will reflect on the implications of those topics and personal biases on their social work practice. 

2 Quizzes

Weeks 4 and 7 each contain a 20-question quiz. Taking quizzes like this can help practice for the Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) Exam. You can find some test-taking preparation resources in your Brightspace Course.

Grading Policy

The School of Social Work uses the following grading system for all courses with the exception of field education courses. Students are expected to maintain a “B” (3.0) average over the course of their study. Students with less than a GPA of 3.0 will be placed on academic probation. Students must have an overall GPA of 3.0 in order to receive their Master’s Degree.

Your grade in this course will be determined by the following criteria:

Grade Breakdown

Assignment	Point Value	Total Points
Acknowledgement of Academic Engagement	1 point	1
Introduce Yourself Discussion	0.5	0.5
Full-Class Discussions	3 points each x 14 Forums	42
Small-Group Discussions	4.5 points x 7 Forums	31.5
Journals	3 points each x 5 Journal Submissions	15
Quizzes	5 points x 2 Quizzes	10
Total:		100

Grade Scale

Grade	Points Grade	Point Average (GPA)
A	94 – 100%	4.00
A-	90 – 93%	3.75
B+	87 – 89%	3.50
B	84 – 86%	3.00
B-	80 – 83%	2.75
C+	77 – 79%	2.50
C	74 – 76%	2.00
C-	70 – 73%	1.75
D	64 – 69%	1.00
F	00 – 63%	0.00