[humanser] Tips for preparing for field placement

[Osmond Kwan]

Hi Anjelina,

Good question. I wish I had the chance to ask when I began my first
field placement five years ago.

With my BSW field interviews, I visited three agencies. With my MSW, I
visited seven agencies. I would say out of these interviews, the most
discouraging one was one of my BSW interviews at a foster care agency.
It lasted about ten minutes and almost all the questions were about my
disability. In the end, she wanted to use someone with sight and I did
not know how to present my disability in a way that would not
disqualify me.

I would say be prepared to discuss the accommodations you use and
might need. Many of us learned in the program, self-advocacy is key.
Make sure you express your needs. Find out the tasks that are
required. For one of my internships, one task was job coaching which
required sight. My supervisor saw that the task required sight and so
replaced it with doing client intakes.

Documentation was another major piece. When I was at the hospital,
they used documentation software that was no compatible with my screen
reader. So, I did my documentation in Word. Some supervisors are very
accommodating while a small minority are not. This will make a huge
difference in your field experience.

Do you already have a placement? In my BSW program we had field fairs
in March and many knew by the end of the semester where they would do
their internship in the fall.

Regards,
Osmond







On 5/29/12, Anjelina Cruz <anjelinac26 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Good evening list,
> I'm currently pursuing my bsw. Next year I'll have my first
> internship. What tips would you give a person who is blind going into
> social work? What were your initial experiences like? How did you deal
> with the difficulties you faced?
> Thanks for any feedback
>
> --
> Anjelina
>
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