51茶馆

Dispatches from the Field听is a monthly feature at听Innovate@51茶馆SW听designed to showcase the school鈥檚 commitment to听field education, and to fostering fruitful relationships with organizations, both in Boston and around the world, who are providing critical services to those living at the margins of society.

Agency partner:听Cindy Gordon, MSW 鈥�93, Clinical Director, Adult Behavioral Health and Psychiatric Emergency Services

Organization:听听(BMC)

Services:听Gordon is tasked with supervising a team of more than 27 clinicians who work in the adult behavioral health and emergency departments at BMC.

Relationship with 51茶馆SSW:听鈥淓very year, we work closely with interns from the Boston College School of Social Work, and with other schools in the area. Our interns are fully integrated into our team and provide the same services as our clinical staff, including individual, group, and crisis intervention. They also participate in clinical treatment team meetings.

Their presence is critical to our organization for a number of reasons. We operate a large adult outpatient behavioral health clinic where we see many patients. On a practical level, our patients have better and faster access to services thanks to our interns.

I also find that I learn a ton from the students, who bring in all sorts of resources from their coursework: new articles, new books, and new ideas that help our team to think differently about how to address the problems that arise in our work.

I may be biased since I graduated from 51茶馆SSW, but I find that the Boston College students are of a very high caliber. They always come to work prepared, and it鈥檚 great to see how excited they are to learn. They鈥檙e like sponges, soaking up so much information, and they bring a high level of energy with them to work, so high that it鈥檚 contagious.

I really believe in the importance of mentoring, guiding, and educating the next generation of social workers, and it鈥檚 an honor for me to be able to do that as a partner in 51茶馆鈥檚 Field Education program.鈥�