The UConn SSW Specialized Competencies for the Individuals, Groups, and Families Practice (IGFP) are based on the 2022 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS).
Area of Specialized Practice #2: IGFP Concentration
Competency 1: Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior
Social workers understand the complexities of the profession and its ethical standards, as well as relevant laws and regulations that may impact practice at micro and mezzo levels. Social workers identify ethical dilemmas and their implications for social justice and understand frameworks for resolving them. Social workers have an in-depth awareness of their personal values and are able to negotiate differences between their own values and those of the profession. Social workers understand their differential professional roles and responsibilities in various practice settings and when working in inter-professional teams. They are committed to life-long learning and are able to access information regarding best practices. They have identified effective measures to care for themselves personally and professionally.
Social Workers (Practice Behaviors):
• Social workers identify and use strategies for gaining knowledge about what comprises ethical practice, including effective use of supervision.
• Social workers recognize the sociopolitical and historical context that shapes ethical professional practice.
• Social workers engage in critical thinking to negotiate value conflicts and resolve ethical dilemmas.
Competency 2: Advance Human Rights and Social, Racial, Economic, and Environmental Justice
Social workers are committed to furthering human dignity and worth. Social workers reframe client needs as rights and address the sociopolitical, historical, economic, and environmental determinants of client well-being. They act to dismantle oppressive systems, structures, policies, and practices and to promote clients’ fundamental rights and access to resources. Social workers are transparent about their own roles and the power dynamics within the client-worker relationship.
Social Workers (Practice Behaviors):
• Identify barriers to equitable access to resources, supports and services and work to increase access on micro, mezzo, and/or macro levels.
• Ensure that clients understand the services offered and provide informed consent to the fullest extent possible.
• Acknowledge and build on client’s strengths and resilience.
Competency 3: Engage Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in Practice
Social workers see identity as comprising multiple personal and sociopolitical factors. These factors exist at the intersection of various systems of oppression and in the context of differential access to power, privilege, and resources. Social workers develop enhanced awareness regarding their own positionality. They engage in anti-racist and anti-oppressive practice, viewing the client-worker relationship as a means for client self-empowerment and the development of critical consciousness. They approach differences from a stance of cultural humility and engage clients as experts on their own experiences. They recognize the impact of culture on clients’ explanations of well-being and help-seeking behavior.
Social Workers (Practice Behaviors):
• Identify feelings and beliefs related to their own positionality as it relates to their work with clients.
• Identify how power and privilege influence the dynamics both between the student worker and client system and between members of various client systems within the context of larger sociopolitical forces.
• Demonstrate the ability to engage client systems in discussions of oppression, with the goal of raising their critical consciousness and agency.
Competency 4: Engage in Practice-Informed Research and Research-Informed Practice
Social workers know how to conduct systematic searches of empirical literature to respond to specific practice questions. They critically analyze the strengths and limitations of the literature from an anti-racist and anti-oppressive perspective. They apply this knowledge base skillfully to their practice in a way that considers the practice context and the values and preferences of the client system. They engage in practice-informed research.
Social Workers (Practice Behaviors):
• Formulate a specific, answerable research question that emerges from practice with a client system.
• Critique research using an anti-racist and anti-oppressive lens.
• Use research evidence to select appropriate interventions with individuals, groups, and families.
Competency 5: Engage in Policy Practice
Social workers recognize that policy can promote social justice and can also contribute to the perpetuation of oppression and injustice. Social workers critically appraise the agency, local, state, and federal policies that shape the lives of client systems in their practice settings. They analyze the impact of these policies on clients and reflect on patterns of client experiences that reveal the need for systems change. They are able to formulate effective strategies for policy change in collaboration with clients and colleagues.
Social Workers (Practice Behaviors):
• Using an anti-racist and anti-oppressive lens, critically appraise the social policies that impact client well-being and access to services.
• Using an anti-racist and anti-oppressive lens, critically appraise agency/organizational policies that impact client well-being and access to services.
• Identify the social and/or organizational policies that can be targeted for change.
Competency 6: Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
Social workers recognize the critical importance of the relationship between worker and client system as a foundation for the work. They identify the ways that their positionality may affect the engagement process. Social workers demonstrate the capacity for differential use of self when engaging with client systems. They use awareness of their own positionality, personal experiences, and affective reactions to enhance their engagement with diverse client systems and to promote client self-determination.
Social Workers (Practice Behaviors):
• Develop differential anticipatory empathy in preparation for practice with individuals, groups, and families.
• Apply bio-psycho-social-spiritual theories of human behavior to identify salient aspects of the client’s experience that may facilitate client engagement in the relationship.
• Demonstrate awareness of how the students’ social identity vis-a-vis their client’s social identity may impact client engagement.
Competency 7: Assess Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
Social workers assess risk and protective factors, individual and system dynamics, strengths, and resilience of client systems, drawing on a range of behavioral, cognitive, affective, spiritual, cultural, environmental, and neurological indicators. They employ assessment frameworks that are culturally and developmentally relevant for the client system. They use principles of developmental and ecological theory in their assessments at micro, mezzo, and macro levels across the lifespan, with attention to the impact of organizational and systemic factors. Social workers explore the meanings clients attach to their life experiences, their level of effective adaptation to life situations, and their readiness for change. They also assess patterns of communication, role distributions, norms and sanctions, and collective phases of development in groups and families. Social workers value the ethical responsibilities of consent and confidentiality in the assessment process, and balance respect for privacy with the need to disclose and intervene to prevent harm to the client or others. They engage in self-reflection to identify the impact of their own positionality, feelings, and beliefs on the assessment process.
Social Workers (Practice Behaviors):
• Demonstrate awareness of ways in which one’s own social identities, biases, experiences, counter-transference processes, and values can affect the assessment process and establishment of goals.
• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of various theoretical perspectives in formulating culturally responsive assessments.
• Select appropriate assessment frameworks/methods and apply them differentially to practice with individuals, families, and groups.
Competency 8: Intervene with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
Social workers synthesize information gathered during the assessment process to guide intervention. They select anti-oppressive, culturally responsive interventions that consider the practice setting as well as the strengths and limitations/constraints of the client system. They employ a range of interventions to enhance adaptive functioning in clients and to foster resilience. Social workers attend to evolving client needs through the various phases of work, recognizing the importance of differential use of self throughout. They collaborate with other professionals both within and outside the organization to enhance person:environment fit and to advocate for increased responsiveness to client needs. They engage in self-assessment and reflection to recognize and address their counter-transference, and they practice effective self-care strategies, including appropriate use of supervision, consultation, and peer support.
Social Workers (Practice Behaviors):
• Draw upon practice wisdom and empirical research to select and implement interventions with clients that are developmentally and culturally appropriate and suitable for the practice setting.
• Critically analyze and apply a range of theoretical perspectives to conceptualize cases and guide interventions.
• Engage in anti-oppressive and anti-racist practice that engages client systems in discussions of oppression, with the goal of raising their critical consciousness and agency.
Competency 9: Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
Social workers understand that evaluation is a critical component of social work practice that promotes effective and responsible work with client systems. Social workers develop ongoing evaluation plans that involve systematically collecting data on progress toward identified outcomes. They select and use appropriate research methods to analyze data, use findings to monitor the course of the treatment, adjust intervention approaches as needed, and evaluate practice effectiveness. Social workers draw on practice wisdom and domain-specific theories to develop culturally responsive evaluation plans and to interpret findings. Information gathered from evaluations is shared with clients and other key stakeholders impacted by decisions about interventions. Social workers are attentive and responsive to both client values and findings from research activities. Social workers aggregate findings from evaluations to advocate for changes in practice and policy that will promote service delivery effectiveness.
Social Workers (Practice Behaviors):
• Construct culturally responsive evaluation plans that identify target outcomes, a data collection schedule, and appropriate research methods for analyzing data.
• Use collected data, client feedback, and domain-specific theory to evaluate intervention/ program processes and outcomes.