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Trauma focus added to MSW curriculum
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“Students still will be focusing on various populations and settings that are of interest to them, but they will bring this lens and understanding to their social work.”
In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association added post-traumatic stress disorder to the third edition of its “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,” validating Vietnam veterans’ contentions that problems they suffered upon returning home—nightmares, jumpiness and trouble sleeping were among the most common—stemmed from combat experiences overseas. Before PTSD won formal recognition, soldiers with symptoms often were disparaged as cowards.
Our understanding of trauma has grown dramatically since 1980. We know soldiers are not the only ones who suffer from PTSD. Victims of rape, child abuse and other distressing occurrences can develop the disorder. Research shows that the great majority of public mental health clients have been exposed to trauma. Residents of communities with high rates of street violence, alcoholism and substance abuse are especially at risk. Stressors they encounter daily can make it difficult to recover from a horrifying event or series of events.
Nevertheless, three decades after the American Psychiatric Association recognized PTSD as a disorder, relatively few social workers fully embrace the importance of assessing for and treating trauma in their clients. Social workers routinely may deal with clients’ depression, addictions or major medical problems without discovering a co-morbid history of physical, sexual, psychological or institutional abuses. Worse, when clients disclose such histories, they may find themselves retelling upsetting stories to many caseworkers or clinicians in the course of seeking treatment in different service settings, leading, potentially, to re-traumatization.
To address gaps in practice that result in these problems, the School of Social Work has revised its MSW curriculum to provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to evaluate the central role trauma can play in the lives of individuals and populations. The new program will equip future practitioners with the understanding they need to formulate trauma-informed interventions across systems.
Courses and programs in the revised curriculum also stress the importance of human rights, introducing students to models of care tailored to the needs of a client population that includes large numbers of victims of human rights violations.
As the school marks its 75th year, these changes place it in the vanguard of social work education, blazing a path that professionals and other institutions can follow in a world where it’s increasingly clear that a trauma-informed and human rights perspective is crucial in delivering effective and compassionate human services.
“Students still will be focusing on various populations and settings that are of interest to them, but they will bring this lens and understanding to their social work,” says Dean Nancy Smyth. “It’s a paradigm shift. It just adds a layer of understanding that wasn’t there before, and it does have significant implications for policy and program development within human services and education.
“When we’ve shared this with people nationally and internationally as we’ve started to make these changes, we’ve received very positive feedback,” Smyth adds. “My guess is 20 years from now, many of these concepts will have become mainstream, but they’re not right now. There is a large volume of research that has now emerged to indicate that the populations that are served in almost all social work settings have very high rates of trauma exposure. And yet, that’s often missed as a significant concern, both clinically and in terms of the design of programs and policies.”
A trauma-informed and human rights perspective has been incorporated into diverse facets of the MSW program. Incoming students read “A long way gone: Memoirs of a boy soldier,” a book detailing the life of a young man who struggles to regain his humanity after committing and falling victim to atrocities as a boy soldier in Sierra Leone. Advanced studies in the program’s second year begin with a new course featuring lectures by different professors explaining the relevance of trauma and human rights to topics ranging from violence and immigration to old age and women’s sexuality. Faculty members have integrated core concepts of trauma and human rights into other classes, too. Field education partnerships with social work agencies that practice trauma-informed care allow students to experience first-hand why trauma and human rights matter.
Three decades after PTSD gained legitimacy, the prevalence of trauma exposure among human services clients is clear, Smyth says. The next advancement in social work will be re-shaping treatment programs, counseling and other services to be sensitive to consumers who, in one way or another, have seen their human rights violated.
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