School of Social Work at UT Arlington
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SAVE THE DATE
Friday, April 18, 2008 6:30 P.M. The fourth annual Night of Excellence will be the venue to honor the esteemed careers of Dr. Peggy Quinn and Dr. Wayne Duehn as they retire. It will also be a time to celebrate the School’s 40 years of Advancing Social Work Education.
Details:
Location: It will be the Hilton Arlington
Reception: 6:30pm
Dinner: 7:15pm
Program: 8:pm
Invitations to be mailed soon.
UANL PhD Program Recognized as Program of Excellence
Dean Santos Hernández attended the UANL PhD graduation, in Nuevo León, Mexico on August 25th. The UANL/UTA PhD program was recognized from the podium during the ceremony as one of their programs of excellence. Universidad Autónoma De Nuevo León (UANL) Joint PhD in International Comparative Social Welfare Policy is a unique, two year, highly competitive doctoral degree program that prepares students for a research based social work career.
For more information about this program go to our PhD web-page.
Dr. Lehmann Launches First Solution Focused Therapy Certificate Program in the United States
A new UT Arlington School of Social Work certification – the first of its kind in the country – will equip the program’s initial graduates with therapy methods that are quickly becoming the norm in the industry.
The first Solution-Focused Brief Therapy Certificate Program in the United States was launched last year by Dr. Peter Lehmann, through The University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work Continuing Education Department.
Seven graduates received their certification in a ceremony Friday, Dec. 7, at the School of Social Work.
One of those graduates, Rene Taylor, is a social worker at UT Southwestern’s St. Paul Hospital and among the first participants in the program.
“The training I received in this program has increased my counseling skills and confidence,” Taylor said. “Knowing that I do not have to know everything has been a relief. The main thing I have to know is how to help those I am working with find their answers. The techniques are wonderful tools for helping and the spirit of the theory is empowering.”
Unlike more traditional approaches, Solution-Focused Brief Therapy is a form of treatment that uses clients’ strengths, rather than their deficits, to help them find solutions to the problems they are addressing in therapy.
The certification makes social workers more nimble to respond and get results in a health care industry that sometimes demands quick turnarounds. Working with a client’s strengths instead of what is troubling them many times leads to that quick response that everyone in health care is interested in attaining.
The 60-hour/10-seminar program is designed to teach solution-focused skills to professionals in human service fields such as social work, psychology, nursing and medicine.
This new certification will enhance the credentials of the professional giving them a competitive edge in the demanding field of mental health. The program has enjoyed success for many years in the United Kingdom and in Canada but this is the first in the United States.
More than 100 participants are currently enrolled in the UT Arlington School of Social Work program with many commuting from around the state.
Program aims to curb domestic violence
— reprinted from The Shorthorn, August 30, 2007 by Matthew Pizana
Starting this semester, the university Community Service Center is participating in the Caring Dads program.
Now an extension of the Diversion Program that has been with the university since 2000, Caring Dads started in 2002 as a 12 week program evaluating father’s parenting skills.
Social work students work directly with fathers, discuss parenting strengths and help them to recognize accomplishments as parents.
Caring Dads aims to help first-time domestic violence offenders to see the consequences of their actions on children and spouses. The Community Service Center assesses the father’s physical, mental and emotional state.
Dr. Peter Lehmann, evaluates fathers’ roles and perceptions of parenting. “Caring Dads helps fathers understand the impact of violence on children”, he said. “It really helps men develop better parenting skills.
Dr. Katreena Scott is the lead developer and principle investigator for Caring Dads.
“Men are able to see how their actions look through their children’s eyes,” she said.
Social Work Dean, Santos Hernandez, who has been with School of Social Work since 1998, wants to make sure students have real world experience in all aspects of social work. “The Diversion program does greatly enrich the training of students in the school,” he said.
