The degree program will provide you with specific decision-making and responsibility skills as well as social work research expertise and offers two unique specializations: Spatial and Clinical Social Work. Clinical Social Work takes the social background of health problems into account. Unemployment or risk of poverty are examples of social factors that can lead to illness. Those affected are often not motivated to seek help on their own and therefore clinical social workers are required to support them individually in the course of a professional case management. Spatial social work is quite different in that it comes from social policy and works to initiate changes in existing social structures. It focuses on developing new measures to provide an impetus for change, such as socio-economic enterprises, public child and youth care facilities, resident-oriented urban development.
What we offer you
You will benefit from the state-of-the-art infrastructure of our attractive main campus. We focus on cooperation in our teaching and research. We work closely with research institutions for social work to offer internship positions throughout Austria. You will have the opportunity to participate in professional conferences or "Social Work in Practice" networking meetings, which is regularly held at FH Campus Wien, as well as to gather research experience in projects. At our campus we have our own Competence Center for Social Work which acts as an interface between research, practice and teaching. An R&D project that combines spatial and clinical social work is AGORA, a joint project with the European Center for Social Welfare Policy & Social Research and FH St. Pölten: This project especially benefits the homeless, whose frequent use of alcohol and drugs pose health risks. Police, social workers and other occupational groups that shape public space must improve their cooperation and coordination so that together they can set efficient health-promoting measures.
What makes this degree program special
Clinical social work and spatial social work are academic degree programs that are unique in Austria. Spatial social work uses qualitative methods to examine the qualities, meanings and functions of formal and informal places and spaces in order to develop new offerings. It is essential that the users themselves are involved as experts for their own living environment. Spatial social work is being taken into account more and more often, also in urban planning where it is leading to widespread change: In Vienna, entire neighborhoods are being redeveloped, like those around the main railway station or the Aspern airfield. Spatial social work can play a role in every field of activity for social work. In contrast, clinical social work is a specialized discipline.
It is internationally recognized and closes the gap between social and health systems. In addition to physical and mental health, the World Health Organization (WHO) explicitly defined social well-being as the third pillar of health. More and more people who need the support of social workers suffer from socially induced illnesses. In your case professional case management is important, in other words it is not just about providing counseling and acute medical care for individuals, but organizing a coherent support system.
