Translating knowledge into practice: using simulation to enhance mental health competence through social work education

ABSTRACT

Simulation-based learning (SBL) is an innovative experiential teaching method where students and instructors interact with a simulated client to foster students’ holistic competence in practice. Considering the context of North America where social workers are the largest service provider in the field of mental health, it is critical for educators to enhance competencies in students during the social work program. Guided by competency- and simulation-based, adult learning frameworks, this paper illustrates the development and integration of a range of educational activities into a treatment-focused advanced mental health course in the social work curriculum. We conclude by discussing how SBL enhances students’ mental health competence and provide recommendations when developing SBL in the mental health curriculum in social work education.

KEYWORDS:

• Simulation-based learning (SBL)
• adult and experiential learning
• integrated treatment-focused approach
• social work practice
• mental health competence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. There are two required clinical courses in the mental health field in our MSW program: The first course focuses on assessment of mental health, suicide risk, and addictions in a biopsychosociocultural context. With this course as a prerequisite, the advanced mental health course focuses on treatment techniques in intervention. This paper focuses on the latter, which is offered in the last semester as the advanced clinical course before graduation. This course is a multi-section course with three to four sections running in one semester.

2. Practice Fridays is a voluntary simulation-based learning activity launched in 2015, which gives students the opportunity to receive additional observed practice, received focused feedback on practice, and reflection on practice. Each Practice Friday has 10–12 students, a faculty member, and one field instructor. Practice Fridays are designed to develop generalist or foundational assessment and interviewing skills, and we also offer specialized Practice Fridays (e.g. mental health, addiction and suicide assessments, working with families, etc.) (Kourgiantakis et al., in press).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eunjung Lee

Eunjung Lee, PhD is an Associate Professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto. She is a psychotherapy process researcher focusing on cross-cultural clinical practice in community mental health. Using critical theories in language, discourse and power, her research focuses on everyday interactions in clinical practice and social work education, as well as immigration, transnationalism, and politics of multiculturalism and the welfare state.

Toula Kourgiantakis

Toula Kourgiantakis, PhD, RSW, CCFT is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream with the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include family-centred practices in addictions and mental health, social work education, building competencies in social work practice, and simulation-based learning.  Dr. Kourgiantakis is a Registered Social Worker and Certified Couple and Family Therapist with over 25 years of clinical experience that informs her teaching and research.

Marion Bogo

Marion Bogo O.C., LL.D, MSW, RSW is Professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto. Her long-standing program of research focuses on social work education, specifically field education, the conceptualization and assessment of professional competence, and more recently simulation-based education.