Practicum Education | Stony Brook University School of Social Welfare

Practicum and classroom education are integral parts of a single educational experience. The practicum instruction component of the curriculum provides a structured learning environment for the development, integration, and application of professional social work values, skills, and ethics in a real-world setting.

The Office of Practicum Education coordinates the placement of graduate and undergraduate social work students, matching student interests and learning needs with available opportunities. The student’s practicum instruction experience includes a supervisory relationship with an instructor at a placement agency approved by the school's practicum education faculty.

Students are evaluated from a strengths perspective through which growth points are identified in conjunction with the performance expectations enumerated for our students. The collaborative effort of faculty, liaisons, instructors, and their agencies promotes quality social work education and supports the professional development of our students.

Areas of Practice

The information below is provided in preparation for practicum education placement planning meetings. The descriptions are meant as a guide to help you select the population and type of agency within which you will be placed. Other factors will come into play, and these will be discussed in depth when students meet with their assigned faculty member.

Concern for the effects of addiction on the client and family is the focus of this practice area. This focus centers on the study of addictive behaviors and how to intervene to break the cycle of addiction. Primary prevention in the form of education and community outreach is an important aspect of this area of practice. Philosophies and models of addiction will often define the nature of a program's interventive choices.

Typical Settings: Eating disorder clinics, detox centers, inpatient and outpatient drug and alcohol treatment programs, and methadone maintenance programs.

Range of Clients: Persons suffering from addiction and substance use disorders, and their families.

Interventions/Modalities: Assessment, educational series, individual, family, and group work, program development, and treatment planning. Use of confrontational techniques and work with mandated clients occurs within most settings.

Advocacy is the cornerstone of social work practice. Social work advocates act as champions for the basic human rights of individuals, families, and communities to achieve social equity and social justice. The student will gain knowledge and experience working with underserved communities to organize and advocate for change. Community organizing acts as a response to the forces that create inequality in society.

Typical Settings: Advocacy organizations, non-profit organizations, and professional organizations.

Range of Clients: Various client populations depending on the placement agency.

Interventions/Modalities: Administration, advocacy, assessment, brokering, interdisciplinary collaboration, organizing, and planning.

The skills related to working with individuals, families, groups, and communities in assessment, counseling, planning, and research are all needed in providing services to older persons and those who assist in their care. A major function performed by social workers in this area of practice is to link the older adults and their families with community-based services in order to maintain independent living. The student will gain knowledge of the physical and psychological aspects of the aging process, of the needs and conditions of the elderly, and the complex network of legislation and programs serving this population. Issues of bereavement, loss, loss of independence, and preparation for death are central to work in this area.

Typical Settings: Case management, counseling services, group and individual therapy, hospice, in-home services, nursing homes, palliative care, and senior centers.

Range of Clients: Persons over 55 years of age, families, and caregivers.

Interventions/Modalities: Administration, advocacy, assessment, brokering, crisis intervention, discharge planning, home visits, individual, family, and group counseling, interdisciplinary collaboration, and planning.

Services and programs designed to meet the special needs of this population are often geared to prevention and outreach interventions whose focus is to help young people and families achieve their developmental potential. They often focus on educationally oriented recreation, handicrafts, and sports activities designed to help youngsters keep physically fit and emotionally healthy while learning social skills, practical coping strategies, and moral conduct. There is also a focus on strengthening the family to maintain children within the home. Social workers who specialize in child welfare, family, and youth seek to improve the well-being of children and youth and their families, and to strengthen family ties.

Typical Settings: Adoption, case management, community centers, family service agencies, emergency shelters, foster care, group home settings, job training programs, preventive services, residential care, suicide prevention programs, town youth bureaus, YMCA, YMHA, youth centers.

Range of Clients: Children, parents and/or guardians, families, and youth.

Interventions/Modalities: Advocacy, assessment, collateral work with ancillary agencies, community organizing, community outreach, counseling, development of assessment tools, development of educational and training materials, crisis intervention, crisis theory, individual, family and group counseling, long term and brief focused counseling, networking, prevention education, program development, program planning, research, and treatment planning.

Traditionally, the focus of healthcare settings has been on different aspects of medical illness, assisting in diagnosis and treatment through the assessment of the patient in their social situation, and interpreting this information to the medical team. More recently, this emphasis is phrased in terms of a holistic concept of wellness and prevention. Emphasis is placed on networking, advocacy, and brokerage of the biopsychosocial aspects of the client's and family's situation within the broad spectrum of the continuum of health care service provision, with particular emphasis on the unserved and underserved. The changing face of health care provision is impacting the parameters of social work service delivery.

Typical Settings: Community-based health agencies, health centers, hospitals, nursing homes, public health agencies, and rehabilitation centers.

Range of Clients: People suffering from acute and chronic illnesses of all ages and their families. A focus on public health issues examines issues of well-being for the total population.

Interventions/Modalities: Advocacy, assessment, crisis theory, discharge planning, epidemiological research, interdisciplinary collaboration, short-term and brief-focused counseling, and team practice.

Social work in higher education defines the campus as a community with needs and social problems like any social environment. Social workers are trained to offer interventions on an individual, group, and community level toward the creation of programs and supports to address the specific concerns of a particular campus.

Typical Settings: Admissions department, career center, counseling center, disability support services, EOP/AIM programs, health center, LGBTQIA* services, and the student union.

Range of Clients: The campus community, including students, faculty, and staff.

Interventions/Modalities: Assessment, education, intervention, program planning and implementation, and research.

Social work has responded to the growing problem of displacement and lack of housing by serving the population of individuals and families who are dealing with housing instability. Primary prevention is an important function of service and aims at protecting individuals and families at risk of eviction and/or harassment and identifying affordable housing opportunities.

Typical Settings: Government housing offices, Housing rights organizations, Section 8 housing, shelters, and transitional housing.

Range of Clients: Individuals and families dealing with homelessness and housing instability.

Interventions/Modalities: Advocacy, assessment, crisis theory, networking, and short-term and brief-focused counseling.

Services range across a continuum with a focus on those individuals within or at risk of becoming involved in the criminal justice system. A primary function is to serve the court in assessment, determination of sentencing, and ensuring due process of the law, in the steps from arrest to trial to imprisonment and release. The focus of intervention within the jail system is to offer proper placement, educational training, housing, recreational facilities, and contact with significant others.

The assessment of the appropriateness of granting parole and recommendations for work release programs, pre-release guidance centers, and halfway houses are aspects of the social work role. Sentence diversion programs are a common aspect of the work done with this population. At the other end of the continuum are a range of preventive programs aimed to serve those at risk of becoming involved in the criminal justice system.

Typical Settings: Adult criminal court, alternative sentencing programs, community-based services, diversion programs, domestic violence organizations, human trafficking advocacy organizations, jails, juvenile and family courts, parole/probation, and PINS programs.

Range of Clients: Anyone who is involved or at risk of becoming involved in the criminal justice system.

Interventions/Modalities: Assessment, crisis intervention, educational programs, individual, group, and family work, interdisciplinary collaboration, program development, and research. Use of confrontational techniques and work with mandated clients occurs within most settings.

In recent years, public libraries have begun working with and employing social workers to serve the community. Library social workers perform a range of tasks, dependent on the needs of the community they are serving. Social workers engage in micro, mezzo, and macro work in a community setting, including meeting individually with patrons, running groups, and conducting outreach.

Typical Settings: Public Libraries

Range of Clients: Community members who seek services from the library. Clients range depending on the community placement.

Interventions/Modalities: Assessment, casework, crisis intervention, educational programs, individual, group, and family work, interdisciplinary collaboration, program development, referral services, and research.

Psychiatric social work has developed from inpatient settings to include a range of services in the community for prevention and aftercare. Mental Health clinics are characterized by their focus on five levels of service as mandated by legislation: emergency service which is designed to respond to a crisis which requires immediate attention such as a suicide attempt; an acute psychotic episode, or a serious family problem; out-patient service which offers treatment services to people who have emotional problems but who can remain in the community and continue to function in other areas of their lives; the partial hospitalization service which is conceived as an alternative to full-time hospital care; the in-patient service which is available for those who have a psychiatric crisis of such severity that they cannot be maintained in the community; and community education which is not a direct client service.

The settings in this area traditionally employ a variety of disciplines in order to meet the individual client's needs. The worker acts as a part of the treatment team, which includes psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health counselors, nurses, etc. The social worker offers counseling services to the client as well as facilitating linkage to other services required to meet treatment plan goals. The social worker also assumes a monitoring function in the client's discharge and adjustment to the community. Social workers utilize evidence-based interventions and recovery models within their practice.

Typical settings: ACT teams, day treatment centers, mental health clinics, non-profit organizations, private practice, psychiatric hospitals, residential group homes, and supportive living arrangements.

Range of Clients: Individuals and families impacted by mental illness.

Interventions/Modalities: Assessment, counseling, crisis theory, DBT therapy, discharge planning, interdisciplinary collaboration, motivational interviewing, and team practice.

Social workers identify social problems, study community needs, and analyze policies and regulations to determine effectiveness in solving existing problems. Social workers work within agencies and government offices to conduct research and propose legislation to solve existing social problems. Social workers also run for elected office and assist like-minded individuals in their efforts to seek and serve in elected office.

Typical Settings: Advocacy and political organizations, executive and legislative offices, political campaigns.

Range of Clients: Various client populations depending on the placement agency.

Interventions Utilized: Advocacy, assessment, community organization, community outreach, networking, program planning, and research.

Racial justice work is conducted at many different agencies and corporations. Many non-profit organizations and corporations have Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives that aim to lessen the racial disparities that exist in hiring, promotion, management, and pay. Racial justice work is also being done on a community and individual level through outreach, education, and advocacy. The dehumanizing myth that racial differences exist is a direct result of the “color-blind” policies pushed in this country. Racial justice work aims to correct these myths.

Typical Settings: Corporations, non-profit organizations, schools, etc.

Range of Clients: Various client populations depending on the placement agency.

Interventions/Modalities: Advocacy, assessment, brokering, community organization, community outreach, educational series, interdisciplinary collaboration, networking, program planning, and research.

Social work was introduced to this setting in response to the fact that emotional factors often impede learning. Focus centers include compulsory school attendance, special education settings, adjustment to the classroom, and more broadly, preventive interventions regarding developmental tasks and adjustments (socialization, substance abuse, teen suicide, etc.).

Typical Settings: Alternative high schools, BOCES learning centers, elementary, middle, and pre-school settings.

Range of Clients: Children, youth, families, and school staff.

Interventions/Modalities: Assessment, crisis intervention, group work, individual work, peer mediation, preventive training, program development, and program evaluation.

Social workers serve in organizations that work with women and gender affirming health and mental healthcare. Social workers work with clients on the physiological, psychological, gender identity, sexual behavior, and sexual disorders that impact a broad range of people.

Typical Settings: Domestic violence organizations, human trafficking organizations, LGBTQIA+ organizations, sexual health organizations, women’s health programs.

Range of Clients: LGBTQIA+, Women

Interventions Utilized: Advocacy, assessment, community organization, community outreach, crisis theory, individual and group counseling, long-term and brief focused counseling, networking, preventive education, program planning, and research.