Spring 2025 SOWK 587 Week 10 - Individual Engagement, Assessment, and Intervention Skills

title: Spring 2025 SOWK 587 Week 10 - Individual Engagement, Assessment, and Intervention Skills date: 2025-03-28 22:50:04 location: Heritage University tags:

  • Heritage University
  • MSW Program
  • SOWK 587 presentation_video: > “” description: >

A significant activity school social workers engage in is completing individual work through the process of engagement, assessment, and intervention. This week’s reading, Jarolmen and Bautista-Thomas (2023), section one of chapter nine, describes the process social workers go through in implementing change within a school setting (referral, engagement, assessment, and implementation). They describe evidence-based practices related to intervention (cognitive-behavioral therapy, evidence-based trauma treatment, motivational interviewing, and a solution-focused brief approach) and to need (autism, behavioral disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, anxiety). The forum prompts build on this content. During class, we will practice activities and discuss the referral, assessment, and treatment approaches.

The agenda for the in-person class includes:

  • Referrals
  • Practical application of gathering information
  • Assessment
  • Solution-Focused Therapy in the Schools

The learning objectives for the week include:

  • Explain the stages of school-based intervention (referral, engagement, assessment, and intervention) and describe the school social worker’s role at each stage.
  • Identify and evaluate evidence-based practices used in school settings to address common student needs, including cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), motivational interviewing (MI), trauma-informed approaches, and solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT).
  • Analyze culturally relevant adaptations of evidence-based interventions using case study material, with attention to feasibility and ethical considerations in school-based practice.
  • Apply engagement and assessment skills in simulated activities, including role-plays of referral discussions and initial solution-focused sessions with students.

Agenda and Learning Objectives: Plan for Week 10

Agenda

  • Referrals
  • Practical application of gathering information
  • Assessment
  • Solution-Focused Therapy in the Schools

Learning Objectives

  • Explain the stages of school-based intervention (referral, engagement, assessment, and intervention)
  • Analyze culturally relevant adaptations of evidence-based interventions using case study material, with attention to feasibility and ethical considerations in school-based practice.
  • Apply engagement and assessment skills in simulated activities, including role-plays of referral discussions and initial solution-focused sessions with students.

Midterm Feedback

11 submitted, where 13 did not.

Positive:

  • Instruction
  • Content (class, textbook, learning activities)
  • Supportiveness

Constructive:

  • Amount of work (forums, breaking up assignments) - Not sure I’m going to change. about 3-5 paragraphs a week
  • More case studies
  • More responsive grading (YES)

Other:

  • Offering first semester (would love to)
  • Exemplar assignments (What do other teachers do?)

Referrals

[Whole Group Activity] Framing Discussion

  • What do your schools do for referrals for services?
  • What do you see function well or not work?
  • In referral meetings, what information is generally shared?

[Whole Group Activity] Referral Pitch

Working groups of three or four, make a pitch for a student to be referred to social work services. It could be a real case or a fictional one.

Clinical Case Study: CBT for depression in a Puerto Rican adolescent

[Small Group Activity] Read Case Study and Discuss

Read the case study and discuss the following with a partner:

  • What stood out to you about the way CBT was adapted?
  • What are the implications of this study for school-based mental health interventions?
  • What ethical considerations are important when designing culturally adapted interventions?

Jiménez Chafey, M. I., Bernal, G., & Rosselló, J. (2009). Clinical case study: CBT for depression in a Puerto Rican adolescent: challenges and variability in treatment response. Depress Anxiety, 26(1), 98-103. https://doi.org/10.1002/da.20457

Use of Screening Tool & Facesheet

Referral and assessment

[Whole Group Activity] Discuss my initial use of Y-PSC

Examples of Facesheet Used

Multipurpose:

  • Quick access to information
  • Mini assessment

Formalized Assessment Tools

[Whole Group Activity] Framing Discussion

  • Assessment tools used in your schools

Textbook has a long list of assessment tools:

  • The young children’s empathy measure
  • Depression rating scale
  • Behavior and emotional rating scale
  • Children’s cognitive assessment questionnaire
  • Children’s perceive self-control scale
  • Child report of posttraumatic symptoms and parent report of posttraumatic symptoms
  • Adolescent concerns evaluation
  • Behavioral self-concept scale
  • Behavior rating index for children’s (BRIC)
  • Childhood personality scale
  • Children’s cognitive assessment questionnaire
  • Eyberg behavior inventory
  • Family, friends, and self form
  • Hare self-esteem scale
  • Homework problem, checklist
  • Index of peer relations
  • Multi attitude, suicide, tendency scale
  • Concern, overweight, and dieting scale
  • Connor’s teacher rating scale
  • The young children’s empathy measure
  • Brown attention deficit disorder scales for children and adolescence
  • Pediatric adverse childhood experiences and related life events
  • CASEL SEL assessment guide
  • The RAND education assessment finder
  • Mental health screening and evaluation compendium
  • Strengths and difficulties questionnaire
  • Measuring violence related to attitudes, behaviors, and influence among youth
  • Measuring bullying, victimization, perpetration, and bystander experiences
  • Compendium of screening tools for early childhood, social-emotional development
  • Social-emotional learning assessment measures for middle school youth
  • California evidence base clearinghouse for child welfare
  • Ohio scales
  • Single system design analysis
  • DSM five online assessment measures

Consider reviewing pp. 187-191 for info

[Small Group Activity] Find and share a few assessments

Consider:

  • What might you use in your practice
  • Recognize that not all of them are easily findable

(Jarolmen & Bautista-Thomas, 2023, pp. 187-191)

Assessment

[Whole Group Activity] Framing the Discussion

  • What type of information might you need to gather to understand the needs of a student

[Small Group Activity] Assessment Hot Seat Working groups of three or four, have the group gather assessment data by putting peers in the hot seat to answer questions

Solution-Focused Therapy in the Schools

The First Session

  • Inquire into the child’s life.
  • Clarify problem behaviors (Why do you think you are here?).
  • Ask relationship questions to see how others view the problem.
  • Track exceptions to the problem.
  • Scale the problem…
  • Ask the miracle question to develop solutions.
  • Take a session break to reflect, develop compliments and formulate tasks.
  • Deliver compliments and tasks.

[Small Group Activity] Partner Role Play

With a partner, take one of the examples of students used in discussing referral/assessment and role-play the first session.