SOC 295 - Trauma and Resilience

3 credits

This course focuses on understanding the etiology of trauma, best practices of trauma-informed care, and resilience building. Primary focus is on understanding trauma and resilience at the individual, community and systems levels. Trauma, at the individual level, is underdiagnosed and treated, and is connected to elevated rates of mental illness, substance abuse, suicidality, poor physical health outcomes, and, low levels of educational achievement. The study of trauma and resilience at the systems level, focuses on issues like systemic racism, proactive and humane law enforcement, economic equity, criminal justice, educational opportunity, and the affirmation of human dignity and mutual respect.

This course is open to any undergraduate student; however, its primary focus is students in “helping professions”. These include social work, criminal justice, addictions counseling, psychology, education, nursing and health sciences, and law. This course is part of the required course sequence for the Social Work articulation agreements with Briar Cliff University, the University of Northern Iowa, and the University of South Dakota, the Criminal Justice articulation with Briar Cliff University, and the Addictions Counseling and Prevention articulation with the University of South Dakota.

Semester Typically Offered:
Fall Only