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Programs
Ph.D. in Human Services
| University | Walden University |
| Degree Level | Doctoral Degree |
| Learning type | Distance Learning |
With a Ph.D. in Human Services, you'll be recognized as an expert in public service settings. This reasearch-intensive online degree program—one of few offered at a distance—will equip you with action-oriented reasearch skills and context-sensitive knowledge you can use while working as an adjunct faculty member, licensed social worker or social services manager.
Graduate Degree Specializations
- Clinical Social Work
- Counseling
- Criminal Justice
- Family Studies and Intervention Strategies
- Human Services Administration
- Social Policy Analysis and Planning
- Self-Designed
Clinical Social Work
The Clinical Social Work specialization focuses on the use, understanding, and development of models and theoretical frameworks for clinical practice with vulnerable and disadvantaged populations. This specialization prepares clinical scholars who are well grounded in the qualitative and quantitative methods of inquiry and highly skilled in a variety of intervention techniques. Graduates serve as leaders in direct practice, enter university-level teaching or clinical research positions, or move into advanced positions in clinical administration, supervision, and consultation.
Counseling
The Counseling specialization focuses on healthy life adjustment, biopsychosocial stress, human diversity, and a synthesis of social, behavioral, and developmental approaches to human growth. Graduates utilize a learning philosophy that emphasizes developmental theories and the broad application of these theories to promote positive, health-oriented growth with emphasis on helping others achieve greater psychological, social, academic, vocational, and ethical development.
Criminal Justice
The Criminal Justice specialization addresses current issues related to public safety, juvenile delinquency, the courts and prisons, as well as solutions to the control and elimination of criminal behavior. Students study demographic shifts, economic disparity among racial and ethnic groups, urban decay, interpersonal violence, and the increasing role of substance abuse and poverty in criminal behavior. Graduates are prepared to lead the complex process of changing the community’s social, educational, and economic infrastructures to reduce violence.
The Family Studies and Intervention Strategies specialization provides students with an understanding of the utilization of advanced clinical theory and research methodology within a unique client-centered ecological context. Students are exposed to a broad spectrum of theoretical and clinical approaches to intervention, which emphasize the special needs of ethnic and racial minority, gay and lesbian, single-parent, and low-income families. Graduates are particularly skilled at developing multi-modal therapeutic approaches and recognizing special treatment considerations within a diverse client delivery system.
Human Services Administration
The Human Services Administration specialization focuses on the study of the theoretical foundations of organizational behavior and the practice of management and planning. Topics for inquiry include program development and implementation, leadership, creating and sustaining interorganizational and community relations, and staff development and training. Graduates are prepared to assess the effectiveness of the internal and systemic efforts of community-based human services organizations and, as a result, provide managers and direct-line staff with more effective strategies for improving the well-being of the diverse individuals and groups they serve.
The Social Policy Analysis and Planning specialization emphasizes the principles of social welfare and the use, development, and protection of human and societal resources within a community-oriented framework. Graduates in this field seek the best use of human, material, and economic resources to lead communities to more effectively organize their health and human service delivery systems. While covering an array of practice environments (urban, rural, community, regional, and national), the international focus on sustainable development is an integral part of this specialization.
Self-Designed
Students in the Ph.D. in Human Services program have the option to design their own specialization. A Self-Designed specialization must fit within the existing range of expertise of the Human Services faculty and the KAM curriculum structure of the General Program in Human Services. It must also be developed in consultation with program faculty and approved by the faculty chair.
