School of Social Work

The Graduate Certificate in Military Social Work is designed to expand the pool of professionals who are qualified to work in settings with military personnel, veterans, and their families. The Certificate focuses on clinical practice strategies of social work intervention with military personnel and their families to improve the mental health and health of this population.

This certificate is available both to students enrolled in the MU School of Social Work Masters of Social Work (MSW) Program as part of their graduate training as well as a stand-alone entity to civilian graduate level clinical social work practitioners who wish to augment their knowledge and skills in this area.

Only Clinical MSWs and MSW Clinical students will be accepted to the Military SW Graduate Certificate Program. Approval of the MSW Program Director is required for admission into the graduate certificate program.

Because all of the Military Social Work Graduate Certificate courses fulfill other requirements of our MSW program, a student can conveniently earn the Military SW Graduate Certificate while completing their MSW. No additional coursework is required.

The Military SW Grad Certificate consists of 12 credit hours, including three required courses and one elective. The required courses include: 1) "Military Culture: Issues for Helping Professionals" (counts as a diversity elective); 2) "Military Social Work" (counts as a free elective); and 3) "Trauma Practice and Crisis Intervention" (counts as a clinical selective). For the fourth class, students will choose either "Disability Rights Advocacy" or "Organizational Issues in Child Welfare" (counts as a policy elective). The assignments in all classes will be focused on Military SW issues.

During the final semester of the MSW Program, we will attempt to place the student in a full-time block practicum experience 40 hours/week (680 total hours) at a setting where students will gain skills practicing with military personnel, veterans or their families. Due to the low volume of available military social work practicum sites, there is no guarantee that the certificate participants will be placed in their desired military social work practicum site. The Director of Field in conjunction with the Director of the Graduate Certificate in Military Social Work works with students to choose a practicum setting that fits SSW requirements and student interests. Practicing MSWs only complete 12 hours of coursework and are not required to complete an additional practicum
experience. Students may be required to complete practicum experiences outside of Columbia.

For additional information about the Graduate Certificate in Military Social Work, please contact the MSW Program Director.

The Graduate Certificate in Gerontological Social Work at the University of Missouri is designed to expand the pool of professionals who are qualified to work in settings with older adults and their families. The certificate focuses on practice strategies of social work intervention from micro, mezzo, and macro perspectives.

This certificate will be available to students enrolled in the MU School of Social Work master’s program as part of their graduate training as well as a stand-alone certificate to graduate level clinical social work practitioners and graduate level policy and administration social work practitioners who wish to augment their knowledge and skills in this area. Approval of the MSW Program Director and Committee, and Director of the Graduate certificate in Gerontological Social Work is required for admission to the certificate program.

Participants in the Gerontological Social Work Certificate program build awareness and expertise for work in settings that serve older adults and their families. Participants are trained in micro, mezzo, macro and clinical strategies known to be effective in work with older adults and their families. An interdisciplinary, multi-level emphasis will be provided in the program since a large component of elder care is the coordination and management of services provided by various disciplines. Course work will utilize a bio-psycho-social-cultural perspective emphasizing the ecological perspective, Lawton’s theory of environmental press, resiliency, and the functional age model of family work. In addition, students will build awareness of aging policies and services, and policies that impact persons with disabilities and women.

As a result of earning the Gerontological Social Work Graduate Certificate, practicing MSW’s or Post-MSW degree practitioners can expect enhanced employability due to the development of new skills that respond to growing societal need. Current MSW students benefit from the graduate certificate by completing a concentrated course of study on a population group and obtaining specialty training with population/services needing graduate level social workers.

Because all of the Gerontological Social Work Graduate Certificate courses fulfill other requirements of our MSW program, a current MSW student can conveniently earn the Gerontological SW Graduate Certificate while completing their MSW. No additional coursework is required.

The Gerontological SW Grad Certificate consists of 12 credit hours, including two required courses, one elective and one interdisciplinary course. The required courses include: 1) "Helping Strategies with Older Adults " (counts as a diversity elective); and 2) " Policies and Services for Older Adults " (counts as a policy elective). For the third course, clinical MSWs choose between "Family Treatment", "Resiliency and Solution Focused Practice", "Client Case Management, Networking, and Advocacy", and " Narrative Approaches to Social Work Practice " (all count as a clinical selective). Policy, Planning and Administrative MSWs choose between "Women, Poverty and Mental Health" and " Disability Rights Advocacy". For the fourth class, students will choose from a variety of acceptable interdisciplinary courses.

During the final semester of the MSW Program, the full-time block practicum experience 40 hours/week (680 total hours) is arranged at a setting where students will gain skills practicing with older adults. The Director of Field in conjunction with the Director of the Graduate Certificate in Gerontological Social Work works with students to choose a practicum setting that fits SSW requirements and student interests. Practicing MSWs only complete 12 hours of coursework and are not required to complete an additional practicum experience.

For additional information about the Graduate Certificate in Gerontological Social Work, please contact the MSW Program director.

• Advanced standing students (full-time and part-time, on-campus and off campus) must apply for the Graduate Certificate program at the same time they apply for the MSW Program
• Regular standing students with a Fall start (full time and part-time, on-campus and off campus)  must apply by January 15th of their 1st year in the program (2nd semester).
• Regular standing students with a Spring start (part-time, on-campus)  must apply by January 15th of their 2nd year in the program.

Early graduate certificate application submission is strongly encouraged!