SNHU Individual Family & Group Context in Field Education Experience Discussion

Respond to the blog post of three colleagues in one or more of the following ways:

• Expand on your colleague’s posting.
• Make a suggestion to your colleague’s post.

Be sure to support your blog posts with
specific references to this week’s resources and provide full APA
citations for your references. For more information about posting your
blog assignment, click on the Field Education Blogs link on the course navigation menu.

Colleague1: Shaliah

An explanation of the individual, family, and group context in your field education experience.

My field experience is at an inpatient drug and alcohol facility in
which the main engagement type is on a micro and mezzo level. At my
site, nurses, behavioral health technicians, assessment counselors, and
the therapists all work with the individuals throughout the program.
Upon entry to the program, the individuals see nursing for covid
testing, then the behavioral health techs to get their belongings
checked, then they engage with the assessment counselor to complete
intake information and initial assessments to determine the level of
care needed, and finally once a therapist is assigned, they will work
with the therapist for the development of their treatment plan.
Birkenmaier & Berg-Weger (2018) describes the principle of teams and
teamwork that states the application of relationship-building values
and the principles of team dynamics to perform effectively in different
team roles to plan and deliver person-/population-centered care that is
safe, timely, efficient, effective, and equitable. As you can see, it is
a team collaboration from the moment an individual arrives to when they
discharge. There is the medical team and there is the behavioral health
team, that includes the behavioral health techs, assessment counselors
and therapists.

The group context of my field experience is demonstrated through the
weekly group meetings that all clients have to engage in throughout the
program. There are different groups that are held by the therapists,
including MTREM which is a trauma focused group, art therapy group, etc.
When discussing family context, there are opportunities for therapists
to work with families if the client decides to engage in family sessions
or agree to the therapists contacting their families regarding their
treatment progress.

Reference

Birkenmaier, J., & Berg-Weger, M. (2018). The practicum companion for social work: Integrating class and fieldwork (4th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.

Colleague 2: Mikahla

An explanation of the individual, family, and group context in your field education experience

Within the social work field, we learn how to work within populations within the different levels of social work which include micro, mezzo, and macro. Within these stages of social work, as a student we are expected to engage with individuals, families, groups and communities in order to develop professionalism within the social work competencies. These competencies include engagement, assessment, intervention, and termination /evaluations. (Birkenmaier & Weger, p. 118). My field placement is at a home and community based mental health agency for children 0-21 years of age. While I mainly work on an individual level, I can also work with groups, and the child’s family. When working with children, social workers often work with their family as well due to their age. With that being said, there are times in which I have session with the family as a whole, with just the child, or with their family. When working with an individual, I complete an initial assessment/ evaluation which determines the need for the services. Through the information gathered, I am able to develop a treatment plan which consists of the parent’s goals for the child, as well as the children’s goals that they want to include. I also can work within a group session. I am currently working with a group within a residential placement, as well as a sibling group. Each of these groups have different goals and objectives. Birkenmaier & Weger (2018) define group practice as goal directed activity that brings people together for a common purpose or goal (p. 156).

References

Birkenmaier, J., & Berg-Weger, M. (2018). The practicum companion for social work: Integrating class and fieldwork (4th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson

Colleague 3: Mike

Hello Class,

Individual, Family and Group Contex in Field Placement Agency.

Working with individuals, families, and groups is part of the core
competencies of the social work profession (Birkenmaier &
Berg-Weger, 2018). My field placement agency is an outpatient mental
health agency. I have four insdividual clients that I provide therapy
for every other week and do two assessments a week for new clients. I
receive intensive supervision on how to deal with each of my clients and
send all my clinical notes to my field supervisor for their sign off.

During some of my individual sessions, I have included the guardian of
the client in on some of the session. In these sessions, I focus some on
family approaches and in the future I will recommend at least one of my
clients for family therapy in addition to individual therapy. Family
therapy is offered at my field placement site, but I have not seen it be
the only type of therapy used, usually it is an extension of individual
therapy.

Every Wednesday, the agency has new patient groups meetings. These
groups were instituted because of the sever backflow of patients needing
services and not enough clinicains to provide those services. These
group ensurte that patients have an avenue to mental health support
while waiting to be connected with a therapist. My field placement has a
stricty no-show policy that terminates services after the third no-show
in a six month period, in part to lessen the time that new patients
need to access individual therapy. The agency also has substance-uise
step down groups and addictions peer-support groups as well.

Reference

Birkenmaier,
J., & Berg-Weger, M. (2018). The practicum companion for social
work: Integrating class and fieldwork (4th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.