SW 580A - Applied Topics in Health Care

Credits: 3

The overall goal of this course is to provide social work students with knowledge about physical and behavioral health and disability policies, programs, and service delivery systems in the United States. The U.S. health care system will also be compared to other models of health care around the world. The course is also designed to inform students about sometimes rapid changes taking place in policy and practice (i.e., the Affordable Care Act) and about their impact on the roles of social workers. A major goal is to help social work students understand, and critically think about, the connection between practice and policy. Throughout the course, an emphasis will be placed on understanding differential patterns of health care service delivery, utilization and access with a particular focus on health disparities. Prerequisites: foundation courses.