- Social Services for Children and Adolescents

Catalog description

This course will explore the developmental stages of childhood and adolescence with a specific focus on how at-risk youth populations navigate the normative tasks associated with this stage. This course will therefore examine the relationship between micro, mezzo, and macro circumstances and atypical youth development. This course will emphasize how social workers, or those in the helping profession, can help identify youth in at-risk situations and how various resources can be implemented to ameliorate or minimize the harm. The ecological aspects of at-risk youth will be explored including the environmental settings of family, neighborhoods, schools, and communities. Besides risky environments, high-risk behaviors will be identified as they relate to school dropout, sexual behavior, youth suicide, teen substance use/abuse, youth violence, and school shootings. Biopsychosocial spiritual assessment strategies as well as prevention and intervention strategies will be discussed.