Experiential Learning in a Student-Run Mental Health Clinic: Teaching Interdisciplinary Practice

Overview: This presentation provides an overview of a program’s successful partnership with a local Free Mental Health Clinic, the role of social work students in the design, and how the experiential learning process has aided student’s development of professional engagement with diverse populations in this unique medical setting.Proposal text: Experiential learning is a method that promotes learning through direct engagement, and reflection on that experience. This approach to learning is valuable for students working with diverse populations (Ravens et al, 2015). This method is particularly helpful in medical education, as this learning environment promotes professional skill development of interdisciplinary team dynamics in a “real world” setting, in tandem with simulated environments or theoretical case-based learning scenarios. This learning experience, often related to immersion learning, provides students with opportunities to work with diverse populations in an authentic setting (Robinson, 2018).
The emergence of Student-Run Free Clinics (SRFC) exemplify how experiential learning can be an asset to MSW programs. SRFCs are field environments where students in the fields of social work, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and public health collaborate in an interdisciplinary setting, to serve individuals who may otherwise go without their needs being met. This patient population includes people who are uninsured, without a home, or who otherwise face barriers to access given socioeconomic status. By working with an underserved population, SRFCs provide a key opportunity in experiential learning. Social work students can develop and lead in these interdisciplinary teams by demonstrating knowledge specific to social work: dignity and worth of the person, starting where the client is, and identifying and addressing larger policy issues at the macro level. For the MSW student committed to social justice and focused on medical and mental health settings, SRFCs are invaluable learning experiences that emphasize assessment, intervention, engagement, and broader social welfare policies.
The presenters will discuss the history of the SRFC in a Midwestern university setting, how the relationship between the School of Social Work and the University’s medical school was formed, how eligible MSW students were identified, and how their academic experience was designed. This presentation will include how faculty-led supervision was used for effective development of student learning, and examples of student experiences.

Ravens, K., Reynolds, A.D., Suclupe, R. F., Rifkin, C. & Pierce, T., (2015). “You can never understand a culture until you experience it”: how an experiential learning course prepared students for practice with Latino communities through learning for advocacy. Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 38(3), 277-291.

Robinson, E. (2019). Immersion learning in social work education: a pedological tool for enriching knowledge and practice skills among BSW students. Journal of Teaching in Social Work, 38(5), 536-550.