Below is a listing of our Advanced Practice Field Units. Click on a link to view a specific unit or scroll down to browse. Note that not all participating agencies listed may be able to take students in a specific year. The listings are meant to provide the students with a general idea of possible placements.
Social Work Practice in Community Agencies
Social Work Practice in Educational Settings
Social Work Practice in Health
Social Work Practice in Intellectual and other Disabilities
Social Work Practice in Mental Health
Social Work Practice in Policy and Administration
Social Work Practice in Public and Private Child Welfare
Social Work Practice in Public Child Welfare
Social Work Practice with Older Adults
Social Work Practice in Community Agencies
This unit provides opportunities to work with human service agencies and community programs. The practice perspective is generalist social work in direct and indirect services for individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Also available is an opportunity to work in a multicultural agency setting serving persons of diverse ethnic, cultural, linguistic and national backgrounds. The primary purpose of the field placement and seminar is to provide generalist practice opportunities for the development, integration and application of the competencies that are met through observable behaviors. Theory and concepts learned in the classroom are integrated with practice opportunities, fostering the implementation of evidenced-informed practice.
The emphasis in this unit is on problem-solving and multi-method, evidence-informed interventions with active consultation, support, and teamwork from the student unit, agency staff, faculty, and other professional relationships. The integrative seminar provides an arena for student presentations, guest presentations, and other seminar activities. Content areas include learning styles; ethical dilemmas and ethical decision making; diversity; cultural competence; social justice and human rights; resiliency; dance movement therapy; grief, domestic violence; educational and advocacy services. Students have input on topics for lecture topics and guest presentations for second semester.
Social Work Practice in Educational Settings
Participation in the Educational Setting field unit requires a primary interest in children, youth, families and education; tolerance for ambiguity; the ability to be somewhat autonomous; willingness to be open and to take some risks; and a sense of humor. Its perspective is on generalist social work practice in the school/community, with a focus on a continuum of intervention strategies from the individual to the organization and community. Major content areas include: significant issues facing schools; school/community assessment; understanding comprehensive individual assessment and strength – based problem solving; and applying systems theory to develop delivery systems for social work in a school setting.
Students should have a strong interest in becoming licensed as School Social Workers in the State of Wisconsin. They will be expected to develop a portfolio during the seminar which will meet one of the primary requirements for licensure.
Social Work Practice in Health
The Health unit provides practice experiences in health care settings that serve a myriad of patient populations and specialty areas. Students acquire skills in psychosocial assessment, resource coordination, and counseling. Collaboration as members of a multidisciplinary team, discharge planning, linking with community resources, patient education, and advocacy are some of the major tasks and functions performed by students. Supervised experience and dynamic learning in both the field setting and the integrative seminar creates opportunities for students to acquire and develop the knowledge, skills, ethics, and values essential to the role of working with clients in a health care setting. The primary objective of the field experience is to develop advanced practice skills. The primary goal of the integrative seminar is to broaden the relationship between academic course work and clinical experience.
Social Work Practice in Intellectual and other Disabilities
This field unit’s focus is on social work with persons with intellectual and other disabilities and their families. Through direct and indirect practice students work with individuals, families, organizations and communities to enhance the quality of life for persons with disabilities. Guided by the principles of normalization, self – determination and inclusiveness, the focus is on creating and strengthening personal and environmental conditions that enable and support people with disabilities to lead satisfying lives in the community. Students complete their field work with community based agencies and organizations supporting people with disabilities and their families. The integrative seminar will utilize group work, faculty, student and guest presentations, multi – media and experiential activities.
Social Work Practice in Mental Health
Each year there are 2-3 field units in mental health and they are for advanced practice students only. Students will register for 001-Sem and be assigned into specific units later. These units provide an integrative seminar and supervised practice of clinical social work, including assessment, diagnosis, treatment including psychotherapy and counseling, client-centered advocacy, consultation and evaluation. Students are placed in community-based settings where the primary focus is to provide treatment to children, adolescents and adults who experience a wide range of DSM-IV-TR-recognized mental health problems.
All of the mental health field units share the same course description and objectives in terms of demonstrating competencies and practice behaviors. Assignment to a particular field unit is made by the School and is based in large part upon where the student is placed. As of this writing, there are two field units and both meet on Wednesday morning.
Agency placements include community hospitals, VA and Mendota Mental Health Institute, community support programs, residential treatment centers for children and adolescents, University Health Services, and non-profit and for-profit outpatient practice settings inside and outside Dane County. There may be some travel support for students who choose placements outside Dane County.
The seminar perspective for mental health treatment is interpersonal, interactional and problem-and-action oriented.
Social Work Practice in Policy and Administration
Students in the Policy and Administration unit obtain knowledge about socio-political systems, as well as analytic and interaction practice skills for policy and planning. Major areas of content are concepts of policy formulation, analysis, and change. This field unit provides placements in a variety of government organizations, human services agencies, and community settings. The perspective is that of macro-practice within the social work profession. Emphasis for the second year student is on the consolidation of advanced competencies in the area of social policy and administration. This field unit exposes students to information about the concepts and events in the development of social policy and administration and the impact on human services organizations and clients.
Social Work Practice in Public and Private Child Welfare
This is both a public and private social service agency unit with practice including both direct and indirect services to clients. Most students are involved in direct practice which includes services to both voluntary and involuntary clients. Services include group and individual work, case management, client advocacy and case planning. Indirect services may include program planning, administration and evaluation. Placements in the public sector will include both child protection and foster care related positions.
The practice perspective is generalist social work in direct service to individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. As an integral component of social work education, the primary purpose of the field placement and seminar is to provide generalist practice opportunities for the development, integration and application of key competencies that are met through practice. Theory and concepts learned in the classroom are integrated with practice opportunities, fostering the implementation of evidenced – informed practice. The educational focus for BSW and first year MSW students is on acquiring the competencies for entry level generalist practice.
Social Work Practice in Public Child Welfare
This field unit is a public human/social service agency unit with practice including both direct and indirect services with clients. Students are involved in child welfare and child protective services, juvenile delinquency, foster care and community social work. Placement activities include: child protective services initial assessment, family assessment, case planning, individual and family counseling, case management, juvenile court services, foster care services, neighborhood and community services and overall program planning. Students gain a solid understanding of the place of a public social service agency in the human services/child and child welfare system. Placements provide skills in case assessment and planning, case management, counseling, court services, group work and community resource networking.
Social Work Practice with Older Adults
This field unit provides field placements in a variety of agency, community, health care and institutional settings that primarily serve older adults. All of the field placements deal with issues of aging, community, mental health, policy, and institutions. The primary purpose of the field placement is to provide an opportunity for guided practical experience in social work settings so that students may acquire the knowledge, values, and skills essential for professional gerontological social work practice. This field unit provides opportunities for integrating theoretical content and knowledge with the practice experience. The practice perspective of the aging and mental health unit is generalist practice, which includes a problem – focused generalist approach with a special emphasis on: 1) direct service to older adults and their families; and 2) resource development and coordination. The course will continually analyze material with an ecosystem approach, building an understanding of micro, meso, and macro systems.
Students have the opportunity to develop skills in working with the individual, with groups, and at multiple levels of the person – in – environment interface. For example, placements may provide experience for developing the following skills: engagement, assessment, intervention, counseling, termination, case management, crisis intervention, planning and program development, inter – professional collaboration, interdisciplinary teamwork, advocacy, mobilization of resources and group work. Students are placed in diverse settings, ranging the entire spectrum of services for the long – term care and support of older adults, from working in agencies whose primary focus is providing supportive services to help maintain older adults in their own homes, to more formal institutional settings such as nursing homes.
For More Information
For more information about field units, the agencies they work with, and field course expectations see the Field Education Handbook on the Student Resources page. Field unit availability may vary from year to year because of personnel changes, funding, or curriculum needs.
Social work students should be advised that Wisconsin State Statutes require the State Department of Justice to conduct background checks on all potential field education students prior to the field placement.