SOAD9107 First Placement

2019

9

1 x 2-hour lecture-2 per semester
2 x 1-hour lecture-1s per semester
5 x 2-hour seminars per semester
1 x 32-hour field placement weekly

1 Admission into MSWGE-Master of Social Work (Graduate Entry)
2 2 of SOAD9102, SOAD9060
3 1 of SOAD8020, SOAD9106
4 SOAD8021 - Engaging in Professional Contexts
Must Satisfy: (1 and 2 and 3 and 4)

SOAD9056B has been successfully completed

Master of Social Work

This is the first field placement topic where students will experience social work in action. Each student will be placed in an agency where they will be expected to demonstrate beginning competence in social work practice, whether this is in direct practice (case management, counselling, group work, community work and so on) or social policy and/or research. Successful completion will involve students applying social work knowledge, values and ethics and demonstrating foundational interpersonal and intervention based practice skills including but not limited to interviewing, assessment and report writing.

This topic aims to:

1. Provide each student with a supervised field practicum, from a range of fields and modes of practice, where they will have the opportunity to participate in activities relevant to social work's professional ethics, aims and objectives
2. Develop students' appreciation of policies and programs used to address specified social problems for particular populations along with an understanding of wider systemic influences on those populations
3. Assist students to make direct links between theory and practice where they will be able to develop and articulate a coherent practice framework that guides purposeful interventions that take account of clients’ and/or communities’ needs, issues, cultures, diversities and contexts
4. Provide students with guided and structured learning opportunities to demonstrate their developing practice expertise
5. Develop students' critical and analytical reflection on their practice and use of self in practice, especially through supervisory and assessment processes used to ascertain student progress.

On successful completion of this topic students should be able to:

• Show how they have developed knowledge in their fields of practice and are negotiating relevant policies and service systems;
• Competently and ethically engaged clients (individuals, groups or communities) in purposeful relationships that take account of agency contexts and clients perspectives through the processes of planning, assessment, intervention, termination and evaluation;
• Communicate effectively in person and in writing, substantiating any recommendations with evidence developed from thorough assessments;
• Articulate how the placement agency's history, goals and mission, structure, and funding arrangements affect the design and delivery of current programs and services;
• Reference social work and other theories while explaining how the agency policies and practices may be affecting different client populations;
• Describe how they have acknowledged and respected diversity in the course of their work, and managed any ethical dilemmas that have arisen;
• Describe how research has and can be used to inform practices in placement settings, and how direct practice can inform research;
• Use supervision to critically reflect on their knowledge, skills and competence in practice.