Syllabus

Short Course Description

This graduate-level course prepares social work students to address mental health and substance use disparities using scalable, evidence-based approaches grounded in the ENGAGE model (Engaging Communities to Gain Mental Well-Being across the Lifespan). Students will gain both theoretical foundations and practical skills to expand access to care in settings with limited resources, where the gap between need and available services remains high.
Through the ENGAGE framework, the course introduces task-sharing strategies that train and support lay providers?such as community health workers?to deliver mental health services across primary care, specialty clinics, and community settings. Students will learn to apply core components including systematic screening, risk stratification, stepped-care, and brief evidence-based interventions, supported by digital tools that enhance decision-making, care coordination, and follow-up.
ENGAGE (Engaging Communities to Gain Mental Well-Being across the Lifespan) is a scalable, evidence-based task-sharing model that trains and supports lay providers, including community health workers, to deliver mental health services across primary care, mental health clinics, and community settings. It integrates digital decision-support tools, stratified and stepped care, and measurement-based approaches to improve detection, assessment, treatment, follow-up, and referral for common mental health, substance use conditions, suicide risk, and severe mental disorders. Core tools (mwTool and CmwTool) support structured screening, risk stratification, care coordination, and linkage to services. The model delivers brief, evidence-based interventions while ensuring referral pathways for complex cases and continuity of care across levels. Follow-up assessments can trigger booster sessions of evidence-based interventions or referral to mental health specialists based on ongoing symptom severity and risk. By addressing social determinants and leveraging supervised, digitally supported lay providers, ENGAGE expands access and reduces specialist burden. ENGAGE is active in the U.S. and six other countries: Mozambique, Israel, South Africa, Brazil, Thailand, and Malaysia.
Emphasizing real-world implementation, the course explores how to assess, triage, and respond to a range of conditions, including common mental health disorders, substance use, suicide risk, and severe mental illness. Students will also examine how to integrate services into existing systems, strengthen referral pathways, and address social determinants of health. Drawing on global examples from the U.S. and multiple international contexts, this course equips future practitioners with the skills to deliver effective, equitable, and sustainable mental health care at scale. Special emphasis is placed on implementation within systems with not enough resources to address the local need (the treatment gap).