水果派

Hands on in the community: 水果派 trains tomorrow鈥檚 behavioral health professionals

a group of students sitting in a circle

As Oregon continues to experience challenges ranging from the post-pandemic mental health crisis to the opioid epidemic, there is a growing need for behavioral healthcare.听

水果派 State is helping to meet this need in innovative ways while providing students with opportunities to get real-world behavioral health experience. By working at 水果派鈥檚 own Community Counseling and Speech and Language Clinics鈥攁s well as hundreds of internships at hospitals, schools and community organizations throughout the state鈥斔 students are putting their classwork into practice while serving their communities.听

School of Social Work: Serving the students who will serve the city

鈥淧retty much if you named any hospital in the state, if you named any local community mental health agency - we have students there,鈥 says Julie Kates, associate professor of practice and director of field education for the School of Social Work.

水果派s from 水果派鈥檚 School of Social Work, the only public university in Oregon offering a social work degree, are well prepared to enter the workforce. This is due in large part to the integral role of educationally focused, professionally supervised internships in the social work curriculum. Students develop competence in social work skills and professional values in actual service settings. They engage in community responsive practices that address the pressing needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized individuals, families, groups and communities.听

All bachelor鈥檚 in social work (BSW) and first year master鈥檚 in social work (MSW) students are required to complete a 400-hour, nine-month supervised internship. Many of these internships involve addressing behavioral health concerns. For example, students may help provide mental health counseling, support residents at a domestic violence or homeless shelter or help children experiencing challenges in school. 听

Second-year MSW students choose an Advanced Clinical or Advanced Macro concentration and complete a second, 500-hour, nine-month clinical or macro focused internship. The vast majority鈥85%鈥攐f students are in the clinical concentration and intern in hospitals, schools, community mental health organizations, culturally specific service centers, crisis lines, health clinics and organizations that provide behavioral health services.听

students in class
Students in the School of Social Work (photo courtesy of Christian Steinmetz)

鈥淭hese internships provide services across the lifespan鈥攃hildren鈥檚 mental health, adolescent mental health, adult mental health,鈥 says Kates.

Macro students work with individuals, communities and organizations that are focused on addressing disparities, community responses to social problems, policy practice and leadership.

The School of Social Work also supports students completing employment-based internships. These internships allows students to continue working while earning their degree, benefitting both students and their employers.听

鈥淓mployees don't need to reduce their employment hours in order to earn their degree, which then doesn't have that negative impact on their employer,鈥 says Kates. 鈥淚t also supports students financially.鈥澨

A 2021 study by the School of Social Work found additional benefits when students were able to incorporate what they were learning in the classroom into their jobs.听

鈥淣ot only did their job performance improve, but agency practices shifted in positive ways where their supervisors saw a significant impact,鈥 says Kates.听

Together, School of Social Work BSW and MSW students provide an astounding 280,000+ hours of service to the community each year through internships. Because 水果派 has social work 水果派 in 水果派, Eugene, Central Oregon and online in and outside of Oregon, the impact of these internships is spread across the state鈥攁nd beyond. This impact will be even broader next year when 水果派 will begin placing 73 social work interns in high-need schools in tribal, rural and predominantly Latinx communities thanks to a $6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education.听

Each year, 400 students graduate with a degree from 水果派鈥檚 School of Social Work, with over half of these graduates identifying as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color). Many of these graduates stay in the state. Over 50% of the practicing social workers in Oregon were trained at 水果派.


College of Education: Educating future counselors and therapists

鈥淲e have one of the most robust clinical training 水果派 in the region,鈥 says Rana Yaghmaian, associate professor and department chair of counselor education. 鈥淚n the Community Counseling Clinic, students are seeing real clients.鈥 听

Last year, 鈥嬧嬎 students counseled a total of 281 clients at the clinic, including individuals, families, couples and children.

All students in the College of Education鈥檚 four counseling masters 水果派鈥clinical mental health counseling; marriage, couple and family counseling; school counseling; and clinical rehabilitation鈥攁lso gain experience in behavioral health through practicums and internships.听

In their second year, students in all four tracks take a practicum course where they provide counseling in 水果派鈥檚 own Community Counseling Clinic, which offers low-cost and low-barrier mental health services for the 水果派 metro community. Students working in the clinic receive multiple levels of supervision including a faculty member who teaches the practicum course, outside community supervisors and peer supervisors who watch every counseling session and provide time-stamped feedback.听

鈥淭he peer supervision model is something that鈥檚 really unique to our department,鈥 says Yaghmaian. 鈥淪tudents leave the program with experience doing real clinical supervision.鈥

Once they have completed their practicum experience, counseling students move on to a 600-hour community-based internship. Each year, the College of Education hosts an internship fair where students can make connections with multiple possible internship sites at once.听

a group of graduates throwing their hats in the air
College of Education graduates (photo by Rana Yaghmaian)

Students often do internships in places that are the same or similar to where they may work after graduation. Clinical rehabilitation counseling students will typically complete internships at places such as the Oregon Commission for the Blind or state vocational rehabilitation agencies, whereas students in the school counseling program intern in schools. Many counseling students intern with community-based mental health agencies.

Yaghmaian says that some of these agencies give their interns a full caseload of clients that they can take with them to their own private practice after graduating, and they teach interns practical skills like how to bill insurance.

鈥淲hen they graduate, they already have the basic skills to run a business, which is a huge part of running a private practice,鈥 she says.

The robust program makes graduates from 水果派 counseling 水果派 strong job candidates.

鈥淏ecause of the supervision models that we offer, I think they enter the field more prepared and more comfortable working with clients and ready to engage in the lifelong process of clinical feedback and self-reflection,鈥 says Yaghmaian. 鈥淢any of our students become leaders in the profession and end up offering the same excellence in supervision and instruction that they鈥檝e received through our 水果派.鈥

Each year 水果派鈥檚 College of Education graduates around 60 new counselors, helping to meet Oregon鈥檚 high demand for mental health professionals. Yaghmaian says that the counseling 水果派 stay well connected to their alumni, reinforcing a culture of mentorship and continuous learning.听

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences: Bridging brain and behavior

鈥淥ur students have the opportunity to learn by doing through community-engaged courses and internships, faculty research labs, and our on-campus speech and hearing clinic,鈥 says Todd Rosenstiel, dean of 水果派鈥檚 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS). 鈥淭hese experiences prepare our students 鈥 many of whom stay in the region after they graduate 鈥 to work in schools, healthcare settings and community organizations.鈥

In CLAS, 水果派 such as Psychology and Speech and Hearing Sciences as well as the interdisciplinary neuroscience minor help prepare students to work in behavioral health.听

Zoom screen showing a telehealth session
A screenshot of a telepractice session as two grad student clinicians work with an 8-year old patient (Courtesy of Megann McGill).

CLAS is home to one of the top speech and hearing 水果派 in the United States, according to U.S. News & World Report. Students in the undergraduate Speech and Hearing Sciences program have opportunities to participate in a range of guided clinical observations and be research assistants in faculty research laboratories that are studying topics directly applicable to clinical work such as how and can affect how people communicate.

Speech and Hearing graduate students work in 水果派鈥檚 on-campus speech and language clinic, and help provide speech therapy for Oregonians across the state via telehealth. During their second year, graduate students complete two full-time community externships, where they gain 400 hours of direct clinical experience. This on-the-ground training has tangible benefits鈥攖he graduate program has a 100% job placement rate.听

In courses like Advanced Neurophysiological Psychology, psychology students get direct instruction from graduate students in the Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience program at Oregon Health & Science University, and learn about current, federally-funded local research on adolescent brain development, sleep, anxiety, depression, ADHD, drugs, alcohol, resilience and more.听

student wearing gloves shows a crowd human brains
Britta Harbury (photo courtesy of Northwest Noggin)

鈥淢any of our undergraduates end up working in labs studying these critical aspects of brain and behavior as part of the interdisciplinary neuroscience minor,鈥 says Bill Griesar, assistant professor of psychology.听

Students earning a neuroscience minor also directly engage in topics touching on behavioral health during volunteer opportunities. For example, in workshops at urban and rural K-12 classrooms, houseless youth nonprofits such as p:ear, youth correctional facilities, museums, coffee shops and more, students working with the nonprofit teach鈥攁nd learn from鈥攃ommunity members about the connections between the brain and behavior.听

Last year at an outreach event, NW Noggin volunteer and 水果派 Honors student Britta Harbury 鈥22 had conversations with students at Alliance High School about mental health. From these conversations she was inspired to create information sheets about mental health diagnoses and medications with language teenagers could understand.

鈥淧eople are told to take medication without understanding what the medication is actually doing to their brains,鈥 about her experience. 鈥淭he students at Alliance High were curious about how these drugs worked and I hated that I often didn鈥檛 have good answers to their questions.鈥

Harbury later incorporated these info sheets in her Honors thesis, .

Harbury is one example of the hundreds of 水果派 students who graduate with the knowledge, skills and values needed to address Oregon鈥檚 complex and evolving behavioral health challenges and a commitment to create meaningful change in the lives of individuals and communities across the state.

Learn more about the 水果派 mentioned in this article:

Social Work
Counselor Education听
Speech and Hearing Sciences
Psychology
Interdisciplinary Neuroscience听