Social work student spotlight

Recently, Lindsey Houlihan, clinical faculty in the department of family studies and social work, alerted us to these fine students in the Greater Miami Valley Joint Master of Arts in Social Work (MASW) program at Miami University. If you are interested in social work or just want to know what social workers do, here are four outstanding master’s degree students and what they did in their field placements:

TameraAndersonTamera Anderson, MASW '16

Field placement: Community Behavioral Health in Hamilton, Ohio (Butler County)
Activities: mental health, substance abuse, and assessment
Social Work skills used: diagnostic assessment, interviewing clients, treatment planning, conducting individual sessions, crisis intervention, conducting groups, discharge planning and referrals to the community
Career goal: to work anywhere with children or adolescents

elisaarringtonElisa Arrington, MASW '16

Field placement: Fort Hamilton Hospital in Hamilton, Ohio

Activities: screening individuals for mental health services through the emergency room, admit patients for intensive treatment to our Behavioral Health Unit

Social Work skills used: interviewing clients, conducting intake assessments and mental status exams, treatment and discharge planning, providing referrals to sources in the community

Career goal: honor my grandfather and serve the families of the young men and women in our Armed Forces in providing mental health services

KelleyFranksKelley Franks, MASW '16

Field placement: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Liberty Campus in the Psychiatric Intake Response Center (PIRC)

Activities: psychiatric evaluations and crisis intervention for children who are experiencing suicidal or homicidal thoughts, aggression and/or extreme behavioral problems

Social Work skills used: interviewing children and their caregivers, completing risk assessments for safety and lethality, conducting mental status exams, and assigning provisional diagnoses

Career goal: work with adolescents in a school, hospital or other psychiatric setting

MollyGardenerMolly Gardner, MASW '16

Field placement: Gebhart Counseling Solutions in Eaton, Ohio

Activities: school- based mental health therapy and case management

Social Work skills used: assessment, interviewing clients, treatment planning, individual and group therapy, implementing interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy, referral to sources in the community, implementing prevention programming, and discharge planning

Career goal: to work to empower youth and adolescents and inform social policy by advocating for social justice and equality for at-risk youth populations, especially affecting change in the education and juvenile justice systems with the goal to help students succeed academically and in their future lives