STAR COLLEGES INC.
College of Social Work
“Shaping Social Workers for Global Service and Excellence”
STUDENT EDITION COURSE MODULES SWEC 3 SOCIAL WORK IN MENTAL HEALTH / ADDICTION |
Doc Kathryn B Santiago, RSW, MSW, MMin
Instructor
3 Units • 54 Hours • Prerequisite: SWP 4
Bachelor of Science in Social Work
Document Type | Student Edition — instructional modules for class and independent study |
Alignment | CHED Outcomes-Based Education; BSSW Program Outcomes; Course Learning Outcomes |
Prepared for | Star Colleges Inc., College of Social Work |
Based on | Official Course Syllabus: SWEC 3 Social Work in Mental Health/Addiction |
Academic Year | 2026-2027 |
This is your study copy. Read the lesson before class, complete the learning activities, use the self-checks to test yourself, and submit the listed outputs on the week indicated. Examination links will be posted by your instructor.
How to Use This Student Edition
These modules follow the official SWEC 3 syllabus. Use them in class, in Google Classroom, and in independent study. Read the lesson first. Bring questions. Submit outputs in the week listed. Do not wait for the exam week to open the module for the first time.
Module Map and Weekly Alignment
Module | Title | Weeks / Hours | Primary CLOs |
1 | Foundations of Social Work in Mental Health and Addiction | Weeks 1–2 • 7 hrs | CLO 1, 3, 4 |
2 | Mental Health Conditions, Psychosocial Functioning, and Social Determinants | Weeks 3–4 • 9 hrs | CLO 2, 4, 11 |
3 | Roles, Psychosocial Assessment, and Mental Health Intervention | Weeks 5–7 • 13 hrs | CLO 3, 5, 6, 7 |
4 | Addiction, Families, Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery | Weeks 8–10 • 11 hrs | CLO 1, 6, 8 |
5 | Crisis, Referral, Multidisciplinary Practice, and Philippine Policy | Weeks 11, 13 • 7 hrs | CLO 7, 9, 10 |
6 | Ethics, Community Practice, Advocacy, and Professional Synthesis | Weeks 14–17 • 11 hrs | CLO 11, 12, 13 |
Standard Parts of Each Module
• Intended Learning Outcomes mapped to Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs).
• Overview and why the topic matters in Philippine social work.
• Core lessons written at BSSW level, with person-in-environment and strengths-based lenses.
• Practice notes on culture, faith, family, stigma, and professional boundaries.
• Learning activities (discussion, mapping, case work, role-play, reflection).
• Graded assessment tasks matching the syllabus course requirements.
• Self-check items for independent study.
• Selected references from the official syllabus and Philippine sources.
Important Scope Note for Students
Social workers in this course learn to assess psychosocial functioning, plan interventions, coordinate care, advocate, and support recovery. They do not independently diagnose mental disorders or prescribe medication. Clinical diagnosis and pharmacologic treatment belong to licensed medical and mental health specialists. Students must practice within social work competence, ethics, and Philippine law.
Christian Character and Professional Practice Star Colleges grounds social work education in Christian values of compassion, humility, integrity, and service. In mental health and addiction practice this means: respect the dignity of every person; refuse stigma and moral condemnation; accompany families in suffering; protect confidentiality; and combine professional skill with ethical stewardship. Faith may be a source of meaning and support for some clients; it must never be imposed, and it must never replace evidence-informed helping. |
Your weekly rhythm
• Before class: read the lesson and write two questions.
• In class: join discussion, mapping, case work, or role-play. Practice professional language.
• After class: finish the learning activity. Start the graded output early.
• Before the quiz or exam: answer the self-check in your own words. If you cannot, reread the lesson.
• Always: protect confidentiality in any case talk, including group chats.
If this course feels close to home You are not required to disclose your own mental health history or a relative’s addiction in order to pass. If a case or discussion is too close, tell your instructor privately and use the opt-out for that activity. If you need to talk now: NCMH Crisis Hotline 1553 (toll-free), 0917-899-8727, or (02) 7989-8727, 24/7. You may also go to the nearest health facility or your campus helping office. This course trains future social workers; it is not a substitute for your own care. |
MODULE 1
Foundations of Social Work in Mental Health and Addiction
Weeks 1–2 • 7 hours • Syllabus Topics I–II • CLOs 1, 3, 4
Intended Learning Outcomes
• Explain course expectations, professional scope, and the place of social work in mental health and addiction systems.
• Differentiate mental health, mental illness, addiction, recovery, and psychosocial functioning.
• Describe the mental health continuum and recovery-oriented and person-in-environment perspectives.
• Relate these concepts to ethical, culturally responsive, and human-rights-based social work practice.
Lesson 1. Course Orientation and the Field of Practice
Mental health and addiction are not side issues in social work. They cut across hospitals, barangays, schools, churches, workplaces, jails, residential facilities, and family life. Poverty, violence, displacement, unemployment, discrimination, and weak service systems increase risk. At the same time, people live with remarkable strengths: faith, kapwa, family loyalty, peer support, and community mutual aid.
This course prepares generalist BSSW students to: understand mental health and addiction as biopsychosocial and structural concerns; assess strengths, needs, risks, and resources; plan interventions and case management; refer and collaborate; analyze Philippine policy; and practice with dignity, confidentiality, and self-awareness.
Scope of Social Work Practice
In mental health and addiction settings, social workers commonly:
• Conduct psychosocial assessment and social history.
• Provide supportive counseling, psychoeducation, and crisis first response within competence.
• Do case management: planning, linking, monitoring, and follow-up.
• Work with families and carers.
• Facilitate groups and community prevention or anti-stigma activities.
• Advocate for rights, access to services, and social protection.
• Document, refer, and participate in multidisciplinary teams.
• Support recovery, rehabilitation, and social reintegration.
Social workers do not replace psychiatrists, psychologists, occupational therapists, or addiction medicine specialists. Competence includes knowing when a concern is beyond one’s role and making a timely, informed referral.
Lesson 2. Core Concepts
Mental health and well-being
The World Health Organization describes mental health as a state of well-being in which a person realizes abilities, can cope with ordinary stresses, can work productively, and can contribute to community life. Mental health is more than the absence of illness. It includes emotional regulation, relationships, meaning, and the capacity to handle change.
Mental health continuum
People move along a continuum: thriving, surviving under stress, struggling, and living with a mental health condition. A student who is grieving, a parent under economic strain, and a person with schizophrenia are all on this continuum. Social work refuses a simple “normal versus crazy” split. Early support can prevent worsening. Recovery remains possible even when symptoms persist.
Mental illness and psychosocial disability
Mental illness refers to clinically significant disturbances in thinking, emotion, or behavior that cause distress or impair functioning. Psychosocial disability refers to the barriers a person faces when society fails to accommodate mental health conditions—stigma, inaccessible services, lost work, and exclusion. Social work attends both to distress and to disabling environments.
Addiction and recovery
Addiction involves a pattern of substance use or behavior that continues despite harm, often with craving, loss of control, and effects on health, family, and livelihood. Recovery is not only abstinence. Recovery-oriented practice emphasizes hope, identity beyond the problem, choice, connectedness, and a meaningful life in community. Relapse may occur; it is treated as information for the next plan, not as moral failure.
Psychosocial functioning
Psychosocial functioning is the person’s capacity to meet roles and needs in self-care, family, school or work, peer relations, and community life. Assessment asks: What can the person do? What gets in the way? What supports exist? What does the person want?
Lesson 3. Guiding Perspectives
Person-in-environment (PIE)
People cannot be understood apart from family, barangay, culture, economy, faith, and policy. Depression after job loss is not only “inside the brain.” Alcohol use after displacement is not only “lack of willpower.” PIE asks social workers to map the person and the systems around the person.
Strengths-based perspective
Problems are real, but they are not the whole story. Strengths include skills, values, faith practices, supportive relatives, a concerned neighbor, a barangay health worker, a church group, or a previous period of stability. Plans build on what already works.
Recovery-oriented practice
Recovery-oriented social work partners with the person. It values lived experience, reduces coercion where safe alternatives exist, supports citizenship and work or schooling, and challenges the idea that a diagnosis is a life sentence.
Human rights and cultural responsiveness
Persons with mental health conditions and persons who use substances keep their human rights. Culture shapes how distress is named (for example, nababaliw, nakukulam, na-depress, bisyo), where help is first sought (family, faith healer, chapel, health center), and what shame means. Culturally responsive practice listens first, uses the client’s language, and does not mock folk explanations while still offering accurate information.
LEARNING ACTIVITY 1.1 — Diagnostic Reflection Write one page: (1) What did you first learn about mental illness and addiction from family, church, school, or media? (2) Which of those messages are helpful, and which may cause harm or stigma? (3) What do you hope to unlearn or strengthen in this course? Submit in Google Classroom. |
LEARNING ACTIVITY 1.2 — Concept Map In pairs, map the relationships among: mental health, mental illness, psychosocial functioning, addiction, recovery, stigma, person-in-environment, and social work roles. Present for 5 minutes. |
ASSESSMENT TASK M1 — Quiz and Reflection (CLO 1) Short quiz on definitions and perspectives. Reflection paper (400–600 words): How do recovery-oriented and person-in-environment perspectives change the way a social worker talks with a family that says, “Wala na siyang pag-asa”? |
Self-Check
• Why is mental health more than the absence of diagnosis?
• Give one example of a social work task that is inside scope and one that is outside scope.
• How is recovery different from a purely medical idea of “cure”?
• Name two Filipino cultural factors that can either support or hinder help-seeking.
Selected References
World Health Organization resources on mental health and well-being; International Federation of Social Workers statements on mental health and human rights; Hepworth et al., Direct Social Work Practice; official SWEC 3 syllabus Course Description and Weeks 1–2 topics.
Prepared by Rev Rolando Santiago, ThD DPM
No comments:
Post a Comment