[MUSIC PLAYING] Hello, my name is Dr. Iraida Carrion, and I am the instructor for Micro-Practice in Social Work. This course is a very interesting course, because it provides you with the opportunity to understand what social workers really do. Social workers work with individuals, we work with families, we work with community settings, and we also work in policy issues. 

My experience has been really diverse. I worked in community settings in East Harlem, I also worked in hospital settings, I worked in school settings, and also in mental health. All those experiences that I had as a social work practitioner really allowed me to be able to teach the course, because I'm able to bring all those experiences into the classroom setting. 

What you will learn in this class is actually the individual skills. How to conduct interviews, how to be an active listener, all within the context of understanding the individual's culture, the individual's history, their background, understanding the setting. We'll really focus on looking at the environment. What causes certain individuals to have certain mental health illnesses, what also causes individuals to be homeless. 

In this course you will learn "micro"-- looking at the individual-- system, then moving to the group system, and also looking to the community setting. This is important to understand that an individual may have a problem of a mental health illness, or may have a financial crisis, or may actually have an illness, such as cancer or a disability, and these conditions have roots in other areas. So we, in this course, we'll explore all those components. 

You will learn individually, you will learn also the basics of group work, where you can learn how to address issues of working with children who are divorced, or individuals who have suffered the loss of a loved one, or have the skills that you need to be able to lead a group, and to allow the members of the group to have healing as a result of being a part of a group. 

You'll also have the opportunity to learn about policy issues. How do we take an individual issue, such as homelessness, a family living in a shelter, helping them gain the resources, but then taking it to the second level, and doing some advocacy on the legislative issues. What services are needed in the home, for homeless, what housing issues need to be addressed so that individuals are not-- become homeless. 

So that's the beauty about our profession, because it allows us to not only look at the individual and the families, but also look at the larger picture, and intervene to promote social justice and equality in our community.