Addressing Self-Care for Students and Field Educators with Mindfulness: A Collaborative Approach to Field Placement

[...]social work organizations are often forced to restructure and demand their social workers carry higher caseloads, leaving less time and emphasis on providing voluntary field supervision (George et al., 2013). In response to these challenges, new models of field education should be proposed that require less time on the part of field educators and community agencies and an increase of tangible benefits to the agency through the provision of field education. The World Health Organization found that 35% of students reported having a mental health disorder, with Major Depressive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder as the top two mental health disorders (Auerbach et al., 2018). The University at Buffalo’s Health Promotion Office provides free four-session Koru introduction to mindfulness classes for undergraduate and graduate students.