This Project provides the opportunity to integrate and apply previous learning (academic and field) through the creation and implementation of a project at their practicum agency in order to demonstrate mastery of the knowledge, skills, ethics and values necessary for evidence-based advanced generalist social work practice.
For this capstone assignment, you will need to write a paper and present a case study related to an issue in social work practice about which you would like to develop in-depth knowledge to improve your future practice (e.g., Domestic violence, substance use, community violence, housing, social services, or macro issues related to social justice and ADEI). Based on your selected case study and topic area, you will need to do the following tasks:
TOPIC ( the effect of parental incarceration on families and child development )
1. Define problem/issue/perspective/interesting
2. General Agency Information: What type of services does your agency or the agency provide to address your topic? How many such clients does the agency serve annually? What is their demographic makeup (age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status)? How many clients does a typical clinician work with weekly (caseload)? Are these any fees for your services. if not, how is the agency funded? How long can clients receive services and how what are agency target dates for discharging clients? Is there a waitlist for services?
2. Case Study- Client Engagement and Assessment: What are the clients’ wants, needs, and expectations when seeking services? How do the sociodemographic characteristics of the client impact the engagement and assessment process? What other issues does the client present in addition to the topic of interest? (Look for issues of psychosocial comorbidity) What type of assessment materials do you use and recommend for a new practitioner? Identify any relevant agency policies in terms of the referral or assessment process for this client.
3. Case Study-Intervention: What are your theoretical and intervention preferences when treating this client’s issue? (Ask them to briefly describe in a step-by-step way what they do with their client.) What has guided your intervention selection in addressing this topic? How is the intervention sensitive to issues of diversity and lived experience? Are there any agency or government policies that need to be considered when providing these interventions? To what extent has professional literature or research findings influenced your practice and intervention selection? Explore any barriers that might limit your use of literature.
4. Case-Study-Evaluation: What evaluation strategies are used in this type of client situation? How do you involve the client in the evaluation process? What evaluation instruments are used?
5. General Discussion on Diversity and Lived Experience Related to Issue: What, if anything, do you do differently when providing your services to people of color, LGBTQ people, people with disabilities, older adults, and people from different socioeconomic statuses?
6. General Discussion on Social Work and Self-Care Related to Issue: What self-care strategies do you use to prevent burnout or vicarious traumatization? How does your agency address self-care on an organizational level to reduce or prevent staff burnout or vicarious traumatization? What do you think is the most important thing for me to know as a new practitioner interested in working in this area? What do I need to do to be best prepared to enter this field and be ready to practice?
7. Provide a summary and two recommendations for social work practice, research, or policy based on your analysis.
Assignment is broken down into 3 parts.
a. Develop an annotated bibliography lists citations to books, articles, and documents. Each citation is followed by a brief (usually about 150 words) descriptive and evaluative paragraph, the annotation.
b. Write a paper on how the answer to your research question will inform social work practice. Length: 10-12 pages, not including title or reference pages.
. Introduction to the Issue: This is a one or two paragraph introduction to the topic you are researching; this sets the stage for the rest of the paper.
Question for Research: In this section, detail the question that you will be researching; include content about how finding the answer to the question will help inform social work practice; be sure you can answer the ‘so what’ question.
Literature Review: Provide an overview of research on the selected issue; demonstrate the gap in research that underpins the need for your project.
Research Design: This section will provide answers to the questions about how the research will be conducted; refer to the Research Types.
Results Section: Describe the data you collected during the research. If you have statistics or other data, visualize it in tables and charts. Add descriptions and an interpretation of the data.
In the conclusion, sum up your findings and make recommendations for further research and applications. Find the connection of your results with the initial issue.
