Julie Erdman, 2nd year MSW student: Reflections from Field Placement, Fall 2020
I am lucky in my internship. I work in an Integrated Health Care setting, completing Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT), among other tasks. My supervisor is a veteran social worker, a director and juggler of tasks for a long line of supervisee's at a large health care center. The doctor with whom I work is often double-booked, my path crossing hers more than once while she is examining patients. I apologize, back out of the room, and close the door, but secretly cringe. I worry that I may be getting in the way, slowing down the pace.
As I speak with patients in the primary care setting, the worth of my role is irrefutably answered. I am privileged to hear from people who share their stories, who confide to me, perhaps before they do the doctor or other health care providers, about how much they may drink, or who reveal pain that is not physical. For many, affirmations and reflective statements are enough to bring relief and encouragement. For others, double-sided reflections and continued brief interventions, or referral to treatment emerge from our discussions.
I spend one day per week interviewing patients, administering SBIRTs. I spend another day phoning patients that I met in the office who wanted to continue talking. Among them, two have behavioral health complaints, and have moved from brief intervention to referral for treatment; two are grief-stricken, processing the losses of their partners during the first wave of COVID last Spring; one is a survivor of the old psychiatric system and resists referral; one is elderly and lonely, and benefits from phone calls. What I do in the remainder of my time is varied. I may be asked to administer surveys, for instance, or complete phone intakes.
I knew, in enrolling the Stony Brook School of Social Welfare, that I would be providing services, exercising my capacity for empathy in building therapeutic alliances with clients, and linking them to community resources. I thought I knew what I was in for in reference to field, and yet I am struck by just how vast and variable the roles that social workers occupy. We must be jugglers of tasks. We must be flexible, and sometimes creatively change direction completely when the situation calls for it.
I am learning a great deal in school about social theories, and matching practice techniques to human needs. In my field work, I find that the most advantageous attribute I put to use is that I generally like people. Seeing people become more engaged in their lives and tackle the hard things breathes life into the faith that I have for people to change their lives. Field can be frustrating, field can be fun, field can take interns on a voyage through unchartered waters. In the clinic, I am getting a handle on timing and have found a rhythm that works with the doctor. I miss intervention opportunities at times with some patients, but feel I am getting better knowledge with each person I meet. In field, by the end of the day, I feel good.
