Bemidji State Social Work Program

Admission Application

Admissions Application Instructions

Admission Application Form: Click Here (PDF)

Return application and accompanying materials to:

Dr. Cheryl Byers, Director
Social Work Program, Bemidji State University
1500 Birchmont Dr.
Bemidji, Mn 56601
cbyers@bemidjistate.edu

Instructions: Please complete (type or print) the application and submit with an unofficial transcript, your Bart Hoopinsky case study writing assignment (see below for case study and instructions), and a statement (typed) covering the following:

Discuss what factors have motivated your choice of Social Work as a major;
Volunteer work: Discuss how and in what ways you have been involved in your community either through formal volunteer efforts and / or informal ways in which you have extended yourself to assist and to participate in your community.
Discuss your career goals.

In addition, arrange to have two references sent to Dr. Cheryl Byers from a current or former employer and / or supervisor or co-worker or from a volunteer setting or a community person you have worked with. Your references should address:

Discussion of how the referee knows you;
Your interpersonal skills;
Your ability to work with people;
Your leadership and followership skills;
Your ability to work on a team; and
Your concern about and commitment to the community.

Admission Case Study Instructions: Your writing assignment must by typed, double-spaced using headings, each of the questions listed in Discuss your reasons… should be a heading in your paper. You are encouraged to use any or all of your readings to address the questions in this section, particularly readings related to: strengths perspective, ecosystems approach, cultural competence, Code of Ethics, roles and functions of a social worker, and generalist social work practice. You are to do the writing assignment alone and you are not to show classmates the assignment. Return the assignment and your paper in this envelope.

As you read this case study think about…

What services- a relatively frail, abrasive, elderly man with deteriorating eyesight, no family and very few friends, with a limited income derived from employment- would need before and after the surgery.
How you would establish rapport and trust with Mr. Hoopinsky?
How you would establish a constructive working relationship with the doctors and other service providers?

Make sure your essay includes discussion of your reasons for selecting one of the three options in terms of:

How is this related to an ecosystems approach to social work practice?
How are you functioning as a generalist social worker practitioner?
How is your choice related to and supported by the Code of Ethics?
Discuss how and in what ways you are and are not culturally competent/ responsive in working with Mr. Hoopinsky. What strengths - knowledge, skills, values - do you bring to this social work relationship? What challenges-knowledge, skills, values -would you face working with Mr. Hoopinsky?
Discuss 3-5 of Mr. Hoopinsky’s assets (strengths).
Draw and explain an ecomap of Mr. Hoopinsky’s world.
Discuss what social work roles you would use in this case

Instructions: Read the case below, select one of the three endings and answer the questions listed in Discuss your reasons for…

Case Scenario: Bart Hoopinsky
Bart Hoopinsky is a 75 year old Jewish man living alone in a three story walk up apartment in North Philadelphia, historically a white immigrant community of Irish, Jewish and Italian families. More recently Latino and African American families have been buying homes and moving into the neighborhood.

Bart meets you the hospital and clinic social worker, after visiting the ophthalmology clinic complaining of diminished vision that now interferes with his daily activities. You, the social worker, are called by the opthomologist, Dr. Barrett, who describes Mr. Hoopinsky as an abrasive, silent man who wants a quick cure for his vision problem. He is refusing the surgery necessary to reverse the disease process that will result in blindness. Dr. Barrett insists Mr. Hoopinsky should be transferred immediately to the Eye Hospital.

Other than his deteriorating vision, Dr. Barrett explains that Mr. Hoopinsky is in good general physical condition for a 75 year old man. Although he seems frail now, she believes it is related to his stress and increasing limitations in taking care of himself due to his eyesight. She wants you to get Mr. Hoopinsky to agree to the surgery and to determine his third party health care insurer so that payment is guaranteed. As Dr. Barrett explains the situation, you can hear Mr. Hoopinsky yelling at her in the background.

Ten minutes later you meet Mr. Hoopinsky in person. He is a small, compact man, somewhat unkempt, with alcohol on his breath. He is cursing and weeping alternately as he refuses services and demands to go home. He begs you the social worker to help him to NOT have the surgery now. He insists he must go home. Until his lack of eyesight became so incapacitating, he worked as a night desk clerk in an inexpensive hotel that rented rooms by the hour, week or month. You learn he lives alone and has a very small network of friends-two of the women who frequent the hotel, another desk clerk there and another aging man who lives around the corner from his apartment. Mr. Hoopinsky occasionally attends services at the conservative synagogue near his apartment.

Mr. Hoopinsky can ambulate, although he is somewhat weak from his upset- not only his deteriorating eyesight, but the determination he needs surgery. It is evident he can not see sufficiently to get home alone to his apartment two blocks from the clinic.

At this juncture what do you, the social worker do? Select ONE of the following as your most probable course of action and then address the questions listed in Discuss your reasons… on page 2. Make sure you use the questions as headings.

Form a united front with the ophthalmologist and urge Mr. Hoopinsky to sign the release and be admitted for the surgery today. Once his eyesight has returned, he will realize you were all concerned about his welfare and the immediate surgery was for the best.
Negotiate with the ophthalmologist to delay the surgery for a few days. Walk Mr. Hoopinsky home, sit at the kitchen table in an apartment that seems to need some organizing and airing out, decline sharing whiskey with him, but listen to his story as he drinks.
Negotiate with the ophthalmologist to delay the surgery for a few days. Send Mr. Hoopinsky home in a cab with the promise that he will return after he has all his affairs in order, and be admitted for surgery to correct his vision problem.

updated: Summer 2007