Nurse Social Work Practitioner
This innovative program – the first of its kind – combines health care with social service to provide nurses with skills in case intervention, treatment, advocacy, research and policy matters. The result is a new kind of health care professional, prepared to deliver holistic, streamlined care that not only better serves patients, but that also can help ease the nation’s overtaxed health care system. Combining a specialized MSW and case management certificate, the Nurse Social Work Practitioner option is designed for registered nurses to broaden their knowledge base and practice in both case management and a chosen area of concentration. Students learn from a research and evidence-based paradigm for social work that builds on existing nursing expertise and primes them for progressively more influential leadership positions. For more information, please call our admissions office at 213.740.2013 or email sswadm@usc.edu.
Case Management
In today's rapidly changing health care environment, case management has become an essential tool for reducing health care costs and improving the quality of care. Case managers, or care coordinators, are patient advocates, serving as educators, facilitators and resources, who manage the providers, services and products that help individuals and their families. Our graduates learn to plan, design and develop resources for health and social service programs; conduct social and health assessments; provide team leadership; and offer holistic treatment of health and social problems. Students enrolled in the Health concentration can earn a case management certificate upon completion of two additional required courses and two electives.
Mental Health
In response to the passing of California’s mental health services expansion (Proposition 63), the school has introduced new courses to prepare students for careers working with one of the state’s special populations: severely emotionally disturbed children, severe and persistent mentally ill adults, older adults with persistent or new onset mental illness and transitional youth. Students must be enrolled in one of three approved concentrations: Community Organizing, Planning and Administration (COPA); Families and Children; or Mental Health, attend a specially designed field seminar and complete a field internship with the County of Los Angeles Department of Mental Health or one of its agencies. Students choosing this option may apply for a Mental Health Initiative stipend.
