MSW students’ perspectives on learning in a social work practice in mental health course: a qualitative research study

ABSTRACT

Social work programs need to prepare students for practice in assessing mental health, addictions, and suicide risk assessment. In response to a call for increased training, we partnered with community social workers and re-designed a course on social work practice in mental health using a flipped classroom approach. We conducted a qualitative study using focus groups and individual interviews with MSW students (N = 15) to explore student perspectives on re-designed teaching approaches. Participants identified three teaching methods that increased knowledge, skills, and self-awareness: online educational modules, simulation, and integrated teaching with scaffolded learning. We discuss implications for social work education and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Mental health
• addictions
• suicide
• social work education
• simulation
• flipped classroom

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Centre for Teaching Support and Innovation (CTSI) for their support with this project, as well as Megan McCormick, MSW, RSW and Dale Kuehl, MSW, RSW at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health for their invaluable expertise, and the MSW students who participated in the research study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Toronto Teaching Fellowship (UTTF) 2018-20 [Not applicable].