Field Placement

Field Education is an integral component of social work education and the field placement serves as the catalyst for cultivating entry level generalist practitioners.  During the senior year, all social work majors are required to participate in the field two eight hour days per week for both semesters.  Students play a pivotal role in selecting their field setting.  The field placement is designed to give the student practical and hands on social work experience.  Students are provided weekly supervision by a masters level social worker from the agency.  McDaniel College has a long standing history with most of these field placements and several supervisors (in some cases over 20 years), however, the social work department continues to establish new alliances based on student interest.  Should a student be dissatisfied with his/her agency match, students may be reassigned to a new setting.  For any questions pertaining to the field, please contact Dr. Daniel Rees at 410-857-2538 or drees@mcdaniel.edu.

The following agencies are available for field placements:
 

Abraxas is a long term residential treatment center in Frederick for severely emotionally disturbed children, including both offenders and victims of sexual abuse, fire setters, and children who experience both suicidal and homicidal ideation. This agency offers alternative approaches to traditional treatment. Student responsibilities include conducting initial psychosocial assessments, providing individual and group therapy, social skills training, and discharge planning. This placement offers learning opportunities with a very challenging  population.

BARC (Baltimore Association for Retarded Children) is located in Baltimore and provides a range of services to developmentally disabled children including foster care, family preservation programs, and counseling to children and families. This placement is fast paced and required the social work students to provide initial psychosocial assessments, individual and family counseling, conduct psychoeducation and parenting classes, make home visits, take clients to appointments, make appearances in court, client advocacy, work with other community agencies, and coordinate discharge plans. This placement provides an outstanding learning opportunity in traditional social work roles and tasks.

Carroll County Community Conferencing is based on the Aboriginal belief that conflict is better resolved within the community rather than a court of law.  This placement emphasizes practice with communities.  Students will take a leadership role in arranging and facilitating conferences addressing a broad scope of issues including interpersonal conflicts within the neighborhood to vandalism, theft, and loitering.  Students must expect to work at least one evening a week.

Carroll Lutheran Village is a multi-level nursing facility located in Westminster. Student responsibilities include meeting with the elderly residents on a weekly basis, facilitating activities of a daily living with the residents, developing and conducting socialization activities for the residents, providing supportive and psychoeducational counseling to family members, and participating in ongoing continuing educational workshops pertaining to later adulthood. Students also develop a much better understanding of typical physical illnesses associated with aging as well as the commonality of depression in the elderly.

Center for Poverty Solutions is a nationally recognized headquarters for addressing issues of poverty and homelessness located in Baltimore. This is a macro placement in which students participate in policy development, social advocacy, lobbying efforts, and research relevant to poverty and homelessness. Students spend much time in the state's capital legislating for change. This placement is ideal for students who ae interested in social policy and community planning.

Change Inc. is a psychosocial day program for adults with developmental disabilities. Students in this placement are expected to conduct psychosocial assessments, facilitate clients with activities of daily living, enhance client social skills, make home visits to assess their clients living arrangements, provide supportive and psychoeducational services to family members, and refer client to community resources which may enhance their client's quality of life. Students will learn much about various types of developmental disabilities including mental retardation and adult autism.

Community Services Administration offers students an opportunity to develop, analyze, and implement social policy in regards to the promotion of social justice.  Students work with various communities and organizations including the government to create change.  Students experience first hand the meaning of social advocacy and political action.  This placement is most beneficial to students interested in public policy, community planning, and social service administration.

Copper Ridge is a state of the art facility residential facility located in Sykesville for people with Alzheimer's Disease. Students are responsible for conducting family tours, providing supportive and psychoeducational counseling to residents and their families, meeting with residents on a weekly basis, facilitating residents with their activities of daily living, providing socialization opportunities to the residents, participation in ongoing workshops to enhance the understanding of Alzheimer's Disease and other dementia related illnesses.

Family and Children Services is located in Westminster and provides services to both victims and perpetrators of domestic violence. Students in this placement have the opportunity to work with both the victims as well as offenders of domestic violence. Students will conduct intake interviews, provide individual counseling services, co-lead group therapy, work with children, prepare clients for court hearings, attend court hearings, identify and refer clients to helpful community resources.

Fairhaven is a nursing home located in Sykesville. In this placement, students can work with both residents and their families in both supportive and educational ways. Students are encouraged to spend much time with the residents providing services on an individualized basis. Such services may include facilitating with activities of daily living, providing counseling primarily for depression, facilitating with financial management, enhancing social interaction, ect. In addition, students are expected to attend all educational workshops provided by the agency pertaining to the aging process.

GATEWAY is a level V school in Westminster. Students are expected to provide psychosocial assessments, and individual counseling services to the students. This placement has a strong emphasis on alcohol and drug prevention and anger management classes in which the student social worker is very involved. The social work student will also facilitate various group therapies and provide discharge planning services to the Gateway students.

Granite House provides a range of services to the chronically mentally ill residents of Carroll County. The program offers a range of services from weekly individual counseling to providing residential group homes. The social work student is offered various opportunities with the chronically mentally ill including initial interviews, ongoing counseling services, family counseling, home visits, referrals to community resources, and discharge planning. Through this experience the social work intern will learn about many major mental illnesses as well as personality disorders.

Hanover General Hospital located in Hanover, PA. provides numerous enriching opportunities to the social work student. Responsibilities include initial interviews, individual counseling, facilitating psychoeducational services, functioning as part of an interdisciplinary team, working with various community resources, case management, and discharge planning. As a result of this internship, the social work student will be very well informed around the identification and accessibility of community resources.

Human Services Program is a division of the Carroll County Department of Social Services which provides a range of services to impoverished residents of Carroll County. Those services may include financial assistance, medical assistance, social provision programs, and shelter services to single mothers with children. Students are responsible for conducting initial assessments, case management services, individual counseling, crisis intervention, and referrals to other community resources.

Janus Associates is a small national Employee Assistance Program (EAP) based in Baltimore. Students are exposed to the range of services EAPs provide including crisis intervention, individual, family, and couples counseling, substance abuse programs, workplace interventions, and negotiations with insurance companies. This placement has an administrative focus and is designed for students who have an interest in administration as well as practice.

Junction, Inc. is Carroll County's leading drug and alcohol treatment and prevention facility. Students are given a excellent clinical opportunity in this placement. Social work tasks include conducting initial psychosocial assessments, individual counseling to voluntary and involuntary clients, discharge planning and working with other community agencies including schools, the Department of Juvenile Services, probation officers, ect.. In addition, students may become involved with community prevention efforts.

Maryland Correctional Facility located in Hagerstown gives social work students an opportunity to work with an imprisoned population. Social work responsibilities include psychosocial assessments, individual counseling, drug and alcohol counseling, facilitating work release programs, serving on an interdisciplinary team, and discharge planning. This is a very challenging placement in which the student can learn much about resistance, confrontation, and compassion.

Maryland School for the Blind  is located in Baltimore. This placement is a particularly good choice for students who are completing an education minor in addition to the social work major. In this setting, the social work student conducts initial psychosocial assessments, provides individual, family and group counseling, works with other community resources, and arranges discharge plans if needed. This placement gives students the opportunity to work with the same clients over the course of the year, allowing the students to understand the dynamics of long term psychotherapy. Social work interns not only work with children/adolescents who have visual impairments, but may also work with clients who have a range of other types of physical disabilities.

Schiller Institute is a grass-roots international organization founded by Helga Zepp-Larouche in the 1980's with the purpose of creating a "Global Renaissance".  Students are given a range of exciting opportunities in the areas of social advocacy, community education and organization, policy making, and political action.  Students take on a leadership role in preventing global oppression, promoting social justice, and revitalizing the classical ideology of humanity.  This is an outstanding placement available to students interested in macro issues and global human rights.

Scott Key Center is a psychosocial program located in Frederick for developmentally disabled adults who may also have a mental illness. Students responsibilities include initial assessments, individual counseling, support services and psychoeducational services to families, case management, linkage to community resources and discharge planning. This placement provides learning opportunities involving work with both the developmentally disabled and mentally ill.

Springfield Hospital Center is a state facility for the chronically mentally ill located in Sykesville. Student responsibilities include conducting initial psychosocial assessments, individual counseling, co-leading groups and discharge planning. This placement provides the student  with an in-depth understanding of major mental illnesses including bipolar disorder, dissociative identity disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and schizophrenia. In addition, the student is exposed to a range of treatment modalities including psychopharmocology, expressive arts groups, behavior modification, and various therapy perspectives.

Youth Services Bureau provides individual counseling, family counseling, supportive group therapies, and case management services to children, adolescents, and their caretakers who are experiencing emotional distress, behavior disturbances, substance abuse problems, or adjustment difficulties.  While the student is given a range of opportunities to strengthen generalist practice skills, much time is spent in the School Violence Prevention Program.  In addition to providing direct services, students will work with local schools and school personnel to decrease violence within the learning community.

 To view other activities that McDaniel College's Social Work Department is involved in click here Activities.
 
 

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