Field Placement 1
| Course Code | AMHW-310 |
|---|---|
| Lecture hours per week | |
| Lab hours per week | |
| Course Availability | Open |
| Description | Field Placement 1 provides learners with supervised experiential learning in community-based service settings, integrating classroom knowledge with real-world practice. Grounded in the understanding that community members are experts in their own lives, this course creates opportunities for learners to engage with and learn from individuals with lived and living experience of mental health, substance use, and addiction. It emphasizes relational, trauma-informed, and anti-oppressive approaches to care, recognizing that experiences of distress, service access, and engagement are shaped by broader social and structural contexts. Learners are placed in a range of community-based environments that reflect the diversity of frontline mental health, substance use, and addiction work, including outreach settings, community spaces, and structured programs. Under the supervision of qualified field instructors, learners observe and gradually participate in frontline activities, including engagement, intake conversations, documentation, group programming, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Particular attention is given to trauma-informed engagement within complex and evolving service environments, where individuals may be navigating intersecting challenges related to mental health, substance use, addiction, safety, stability, and access to care. Learners begin developing the capacity to respond to these contexts professionally, with empathy, and with ethical awareness, while working within their scope of practice. The placement supports the development of foundational competencies in relational engagement, service coordination, crisis awareness, and holistic biopsychosocial support within mental health, substance use, and addiction practice. Learners are expected to practice in alignment with program values, including anti-racist, anti-colonial, anti-oppressive, gender-informed, and trauma-informed frameworks. Field Placement 1 also builds on learners’ understanding of self-care introduced in Semester 1, supporting the application of strategies that promote emotional sustainability in practice. Through supervision, reflection, and peer support, learners explore how exposure to trauma, crisis, and systemic inequities can impact practitioners and identify approaches that support ongoing well-being. By the end of the placement, learners demonstrate emerging competence and an increased capacity to engage in relational, reflective, and trauma-informed practice across diverse mental health, substance use, and addiction service settings. |