Field Note—Responding to the #MeToo Era in Social Work: A Policy for Sexual Harassment in Field

ABSTRACT

An alarming number of social work students indicate experiencing sexual harassment in their field placements; however, very few formally report these experiences. Recent public discussion about the prevalence of sexual harassment at work and the lack of trauma-informed responses have heightened the urgency to provide policy solutions that are effective at eliminating the behavior; social work students placed in field are no different. Field education offices should have a clear policy for how to respond to sexual harassment experienced in field placements. This article reviews the process undertaken by a school of social work to revise the field education policy to include a section of sexual harassment experienced in the field and offers recommendations and lessons learned for other programs.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Preparation of this article was supported, in part, by the National Center for Injury and Violence Prevention and Control of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention under award number K01CE003160.

Notes on contributors

Annelise Mennicke

Dr. Annelise Mennicke is an associate professor at UNC Charlotte School of Social Work. Dr. Shanti Kulkarni is a full professor at UNC Charlotte School of Social Work. Dr. Ticola Ross is a clinical assistant professor and field director at UNC Charlotte School of Social Work. Frances Ferrante-Fusilli is a clinical assistant professor and field placement coordinator at UNC Charlotte School of Social Work. Maxine Valencia is a MSW graduate from UNC Charlotte School of Social Work. Erin Meehan holds a BSW from UNC Charlotte School of Social Work and MSW from UNC Chapel Hill School of Social Work. Dr. Tianca Crocker is an assistant professor at UNC Charlotte's School of Social Work.