Course Description :
Can you believe everything you hear presented at a conference? How do our professions teach us to assess the quality of incoming information to make ethically sound decisions? Social workers and psychologists in direct practice are expected to be able to make case-level decisions on a daily basis, and supervisors and managers are expected to plan programs and services to meet a desired outcome. This workshop will equip practitioners with the ability to explore their decision-making through the critical lens of our epistemology, professional standards, and ethics.
This ½ day workshop is based on the following concepts:
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Every intervention that a professional take is really a hypothesis that the intervention will have a specific result. In any professional practice, the hypotheses are based on a thorough understanding of the major theories guiding the profession.
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Understanding the epistemology of a professional is critical; we need to be clear on how we determine what is considered truth.
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In helping professions, where a relationship with the client is generally a critical component of the intervention, it is critical to articulate boundaries, and the line between personal and professional relationships.
In this course we will review and discuss the epistemology of our profession focusing on identifying major sources for generating and disseminating information or knowledge. We will share tools to assess the credibility of a source and the quality of the information.
Major prevailing conceptual frameworks such as developmental psychology, systems theory, and behavioral psychology, will be presented with examples applying them to cases in practice and administration.
This intermediate level course is designed for social workers, psychologists, administrators and other human services professionals.
Participants will be able to
1. Articulate the definitions of and differences between paradigms, conceptual frameworks, and theories.
2. Give examples of developing an intervention plan based on a specific conceptual framework.
3. Describe prevailing conceptual frameworks in social work and psychology, both in direct practice and administration.
4. Identify the criterion for a presentation or paper to be considered ‘peer-reviewed’, the highest standard for generating new knowledge in a profession.
Janet F. Rosenzweig, MS, PhD,MPA
Dr. Janet Rosenzweig serves as a Senior Policy Analyst for the Institute for Human Services in Columbus Ohio and is also a Lecturer at the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania. She has worked for more than four decades focusing on child and family welfare in the public and non-profit sectors.
Dr. Rosenzweig earned certification as a sex educator and in 1978 brought that perspective to one of the first child sexual abuse programs in the country, located in east Tennessee. What began as a two-person, 24/7 sex-abuse helpline funded by the first-ever round of CAPTA grants grew to a treatment program serving six counties, a training program serving two federal regions and a research program, all under Rosenzweig’s direction.
Rosenzweig moved to Texas, where she was a consultant/trainer for the child protection system while serving as Executive Director of Girls Clubs of Dallas. She then decided to pursue a doctorate at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. While a student, she began her public service in New
Jersey by helping to found the state’s first county Commission on Child Abuse; in 1988 she helped craft one of the first protocols for multi-disciplinary child abuse investigations. She then served as that County’s cabinet-level Human Services Director, managing divisions on mental health, addictions, disabilities, youth services, The Office on Aging, the County Library System, and the County Juvenile Detention Center. This broad perspective informed her teaching of graduate students at Rider University, Temple University, Montclair State University and now at The University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Rosenzweig moved to statewide service by joining Prevent Child Abuse New Jersey as Executive Director from 2001 - 2007. She more than doubled the size and scope of the agency.
After obtaining a Master’s in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2008, Dr. Rosenzweig drew on her experiences as a sex educator working with child abuse to write The Sex-Wise Parent: The Parent's Guide Protecting Your Child, Strengthening Your Family, and Talking to Kids about Sex, Abuse, and Bullying, (Skyhorse Publishing, 2012). Dr. Rosenzweig continued this national focus as Vice President for Research and Programs at Prevent Child Abuse America, managing a national resource center for sex abuse prevention and working closely with the national expansion of evidence-based home visiting programs. She was then invited to serve The American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) as Executive Director, a position she held until 2021.
Comfortable being called a ‘policy-wonk’ Janet has recently had to come to terms with her inner statistics-geek, admitting the pleasure she takes from developing regression models. When not working, she also enjoys yoga, astrology and traveling in Italy, where she enjoys great wine, food, and friends.