Social Work (Online)

Overview

Demonstrate leadership and social work values in your profession and community with the Master of Social Work from Northern Kentucky University. In this clinical online program, you will be empowered to advance social and economic justice and graduate ready to improve the quality of life for all people.

With an emphasis on clinical behavioral health and community practice, you will learn to engage in professional practice at multiple levels with a wide variety of evidence-informed interventions. The program is CSWE accredited.

This flexible master's program is for individuals who have earned an undergraduate degree in a field other than social work. The online MSW provides the path to help you transition into this sector and take on leadership roles in a clinical setting. Curricula provide the option to add micro-credentials to your expertise by exploring trauma-informed care through a perspective that combines psychology and therapy.

Our courses, taught by the same distinguished faculty who teach on campus, will provide you with opportunities to develop, understand, and apply assessment models and treatments in settings such as community mental health centers, psychiatric hospitals, residential and day treatment facilities, child welfare agencies, and advocacy organizations.

To further prepare you for success, you will complete 900 hours of supervised clinical practice in a field agency that suits your interests and goals. Completing the Master of Social Work online program qualifies you to sit for LISW/LCSW licensure in any state. Earning this credential grants you the authority to diagnose and treat clients in clinical settings.

Program Learning Outcomes

In this Social Work (Online) program, you will:

• Study the DSM-5, focusing on the diagnostic criteria required to accurately assess psychiatric disorders, as well as critically examine the DSM from a social justice perspective

• Analyze how social policy affects human rights and social and economic justice, and the marginalization of vulnerable populations

• Develop your understanding of the biological, psychological, and sociological variables that influence human behavioral development

• Explore advanced clinical practice decision-making and learn to be a critical thinker in the use of research, knowledge, and theory for assessment, intervention, and evaluation