Social Work Students with Mental Health Concerns in Field Education: Eliminating Barriers and Creating Supports

This Banded Dissertation focuses on social work field educator perceptions and practices with students with mental health concerns in field practicum. This dissertation is comprised of three scholarly products. The first product is a conceptual paper describing the integration of the Social Model of Disability and Empowerment Perspective as a lens for assessing and supporting social work students with mental health concerns in field practicum. The second product is a report of the findings of an exploratory research study conducted with 123 field educators regarding their perceptions and practices with students with mental health concerns in field practicum. The findings indicate field educators appeared to hold positive perceptions about students with mental health concerns. In addition, students whose field educators were aware of their mental health concerns successfully completed field practicum at higher rates than students whose field educators perceived them to have possible mental health concerns. Training to increase awareness about mental health concerns, practice-related accommodations, and resources may be beneficial. The third product is an overview of the poster that presented the findings of the research survey during the Council on Social Work Education Annual Program Meeting held November 16-20, 2020. This Banded Dissertation adds to the scholarly discourse of working with students with mental health concerns in social work field practicum