Simmons College School of Social Work
300 The Fenway, Boston, MA 02115
Office: Room: P-404D
Phone: 617/521-3912; FAX: 617/521-3980
Email: ruth.dean@simmons.edu
University of Pittsburgh: B.A.
University of Pittsburgh: M.S.W.
Boston College: Ph.D.
424: Advanced Clinical Practice
473: An In-depth Look at the Clinical Process
475: Narrative Approaches
631: Ways of Knowing in Clinical Practice
###: Contemporary Issues In Clinical Practice
As a Professor at Simmons College School of Social Work I teach courses in clinical practice, and narrative therapies at the masters level, and a course on orientations to knowledge at the doctoral level.
Teaching and practice are two of my favorite activities and I feel fortunate to have a career that allows me to embrace both. Before becoming an academician I worked for many years as a clinician in medical and psychiatric settings and in college counseling. I have continued my interest in clinical work through maintaining a small private practice in Boston and through volunteer activities.
While my private practice gives me the opportunity to continue to work with individuals, couples and families and provide consultation to social workers, my volunteer work has allowed me to see a wider range of clients and have experiences more similar to those of my students. These activities have included work at a mental health center in Chelsea, Massachusetts, where I saw families and children, and work at AIDS Action Committee where, from 1990-1996, I co-led a support group for gay men with AIDS.
Currently, I am engaged in volunteer work with children and families at the Children and Families Unit of the South End Health Center in Boston, a dense and diverse urban neighborhood. Through this work I have been experimenting with new ways of working with children and learning a great deal about urban practice. This work has also provided me with the excellent opportunity of engaging in community-based practice in the Blackstone School, a large primary school that also serves a diverse population. These ongoing experiences inform my teaching and keep me in touch with current practice realities.
My recent writings have been about cross-cultural work and ethical clinical dilemmas. I have also written about narrative approaches to practice and teaching. I serve on the editorial board of Smith College Studies in Social Work.
I am very proud of the honor I received from my colleagues in March, 1999, when I received an award for the Greatest Contribution to Social Work Education from the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.
Assessment and formulation: A contemporary social work perspective. With Nancy Levitan Poorvu. Families in Society, 89:4, October-December, 2009.
"Good Talk": The art of transforming conversations. In S. Witkin and D. Saleeby (Eds.) Transforming Conversations: Re-Shaping the Canon in Social Work Inquiry, Practice, and Education. Alexandria, VA Council of Social Work Education. (2007).
Looking toward the future in unsettled times. Vital Speeches of the Day, 60: 16, June 1, 2004, 493-500. Also Smith College Studies in Social Work. 74:4.
Schotz, E. M., Dean, R. G. and Crosby, J. (in print) Social work and "the community of concern" in an urban American public elementary school: An interim report. In A. Lightburn & P. Sessions (Eds.) Community Based Clinical Practice. NY: Oxford Press.
Teaching contemporary psychodynamic theory for contemporary social work practice. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 73:1, November 2002, 11-27.
The myth of cross-cultural competence. Families in Society, 82:6. November/December, 2001, 623-630.
Social work at the millennium. Families in Society, 81:1, January/February, 2000, 7-8.
Making the professional personal and the personal professional. In J. J. Shay and J. Wheelis, (Eds.) Odysseys in Psychotherapy, 2000, New York: Ardent Media, Inc. 67-95.
Dean, R. & Kamya, H. "Expanding cross-culltural understanding of suicide prevention work: Research on two vulnerable populations." The Golda Edinburg Lecture, McLean Hospital, Department of Postgraduate and Continuing Education. Grand Rounds, May 21, 2010. The research was sponsored by a grant given by the Suicide Prevention Division of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
Dean, R. & Mirick, R. "Suicide prevention work with homeless youth: 'We are the only people who really value them.'" Alumni and Professional Development Day 2010. Simmons School of Social Work. May 8, 2010.
Dean, R. & Kamya, H. "Trauma Work and Suicide Prevention with Homeless Youth" and "Suicide Among Somali Immigrant Populations." Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Boston, MA, March 23, 2010.
"Ethical Issues in Supervision: A Neglected Pedagogy in Social Work" presented at the Annual Program Meeting of the Council on Social Work Education. San Antonio, TX. November, 2009.
"Ethical and Clinical Dilemmas in Supervision" presented at a conference on "The Practice of Psychotherapy" on May 29th at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel.The conference was sponsored by Harvard Medical School Department of Continuing Education and The Department of Psychiatry at the Cambridge Health Alliance.
Dean, R, Kamya, H, Mirick, R., & White, R. "Are social workers ready for suicide prevention: Four MA graduate schools of social work share their experiences." The Simmons Suicide Prevention Education Initiative team at the 8th Annual Massachusetts Suicide Prevention Conference, Sturbridge, MA. May 20th, 2009.
Since 2006 I have received four grants from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health totaling $100,000. The first was for developing a plan to improve suicide prevention education for students, alumnae and field personnel; the second and third were for implementing the plan at SSW and included a conference for alumnae and field personnel. We have significantly increased suicide prevention awareness among our target groups.
For 2008-2009 I receved another DPH grant for suicide prevention education, with Hugo Kamya as co-principal investigator. This research involved qualitative studies of two at risk populations: Somali immigrants and homeless youth. Our research increased our understanding of the needs of each population and of ways of being responsive to the particular cultural sensitivities of each group. Three doctoral students have been involved in this research which has furthered their studies and interests.
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