The University of New England will launch Maine’s only doctoral program for social work this January.

The small program will be focused on interdisciplinary leadership within social work and will be offered fully online, UNE said in an announcement Thursday.

It will be the only doctorate program in social work available in the state, although both UNE and the University of Maine System currently offer master’s degrees in social work. The program aims to prepare graduates “to address complex social issues and drive systemic change,” the university said.

The program is especially focused on interprofessional leadership, said Jennifer O’Neil, who created the program and leads UNE’s school of social work.

“When you’re working in a hospital, you sit around in the morning for rounds and there’s a nurse and a doctor and a cardiologist and a social worker and a palliative care (specialist), and they’re all talking about the plan, that’s interprofessional work,” she said. “If you are interested in having a leadership role in social work, having an interprofessional leadership background and degree is what’s going to push you to the front of the list.”

O’Neil said she pitched the new coursework after the school phased out its in-person master’s program last year. The degree is comprised of 45 credits, which students can complete in two and a half to four years. They can choose one of two tracks: advanced clinical practice or higher education administration. She said coursework will also feature lessons on complex systems, the ethics of telemedicine and antiracism.

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“Antiracism work is one of the keystones of social work and social work standards. That will be threaded through everything because you can’t look at social work through any sort of a lens that doesn’t include antiracism and diversity work,” O’Neil said.

Students will finish the program with a doctoral research project, which O’Neil said will come with a lot of faculty support because it’s often an area where students feel lost or quit programs.

“We want to create an environment where students are meeting regularly with their advisers, they have access to faculty and their community while they’re working through these difficult pieces of their project,” she said.

Applicants need a master’s in social work and two years of clinical experience to apply for the doctoral program, which is designed for social workers who already have experience but are looking to become leaders within the industry. That could be in a clinical setting or a professorial position in higher education.

O’Neil said one thing that was top of mind was Maine’s struggle to adequately provide care for people with physical and intellectual disabilities. She said one way UNE tries to address that inequity is by working with certain employers – like the behavioral health organization Sweetser – to offer discounted tuition for employees.

“If we can offer people who got a (master’s in social work) and have been working in the field for a decade a discounted rate, they’re more likely to come to us and continue their education and work in the state,” she said. “Because we desperately need social workers.”

O’Neil’s enrollment goal for the first semester is eight students, although she anticipates they may have more than that. Applications are due Dec. 16, and coursework begins Jan. 15.

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