BU Master of Social Work ONLINE

Aging is a lifelong process involving a complex interplay between biological, psychological, social, economic, and political factors. The Lowy Specialization in Aging Practice, Policy & Social Justice applies principles of social justice to analyze conditions that impact the lives of older adults and examines the role of power, privilege, and structural inequality in producing health disparities across the life course. 

Social workers play a vital role in working with individuals, families, and organizations, as well as local, state, and national communities to optimize opportunities for the health, economic well-being, and quality of life of older adults.

The Behavioral Health Specialization combines theory and skill development to enable you to promote behavioral and mental health in multiple domains — including co-occurring substance use disorder and trauma — with a special focus on the current opioid overdose crisis and other public health concerns within various community-based settings.

Learn to advance health equity as a member of interdisciplinary teams while you prepare yourself for professional leadership roles that assure behavioral health systems address social determinants of health and the needs of specific individuals, families, and communities. As a program graduate, you’ll enter the workforce understanding the unique role social work plays in preventing and treating substance use disorder and working with racially, ethnically, and economically diverse populations who are facing multiple challenges in an ever-changing practice environment.

The specialization emphasizes a broad definition of behavioral health, including physical, emotional, psychological, environmental, and other social dimensions, not just the absence of injury or disease. It seeks to reinforce core social work values including social justice, human dignity, and respect for and empowerment of individuals and communities.

Healthy early-life development is essential to lifelong physical and emotional well-being and depends upon the health, safety, strengths, and resources of the families and communities in which children grow up. 

The Children, Youth & Families Specialization prepares you to work with children and youth of all ages and identities and their families in direct practice and in medium and large-system settings using a social/racial justice framework. Major social work practice areas include early intervention; school social work; child protection; family support; promotion of child, youth, and family mental health; and community-based youth initiatives.
The specialization prepares you for practice by emphasizing trauma prevention and recognizing oppression — including racism, heterocentrism, ableism, sexism, and classism — as key threats to the optimal development and well-being of children, youth, and families. In doing so, the specialization equips you to fulfill the responsibility of social workers to disrupt and dismantle these and other forms of oppression.

Trauma exposure is nearly universal. The field of trauma has exploded in the last several decades with advances in neurobiology, increased attention to evidence-based and evidence-informed interventions in trauma, and widespread recognition of violence across multiple contexts. 

Because trauma is a rapidly evolving field, social workers need integrated and cutting-edge training to work with, and on behalf of, diverse populations who are affected by wide-ranging traumatic experiences, including gender and race-based violence, interpersonal and/or community violence, natural disasters, combat trauma, and terrorism.

As a student in the Trauma, Violence & Justice Specialization, you will learn the foundations of trauma-informed and multi-level practice and policy and how to apply this knowledge to prevention, intervention, and policymaking to mitigate the impact of violence and trauma on individuals, families, communities, and societies.