The Field Work Consortium
The University of Michigan School of Social Work "Geriatric Social Work Consortium" currently consists of 36 agencies and churches that serve older people in Greater Detroit and Washtenaw County. These sites will train students through fieldwork rotations among agencies, programs, and/or field instructors. The rotations will expose students to a continuum of services, multidisciplinary care, and a range of practice interventions on behalf of older people. In this way, the Consortium is helping us design fieldwork opportunities that expose students to how services are actually used by older people: in a spiral, rather than linear fashion.
Also, because of increasing numbers of African American and Latino elderly, Michigan's Consortium consists of sites designed to help us reach these and other older populations of color and to help us train students in culturally competent practice with older people.
While some Consortium agencies have served as practicum placement sites for University of Michigan social work students in the past, we have added new agencies as well. Consortium agencies meet together with the steering committee regularly to plan and develop the Geriatric Scholarship field opportunities.
Please do not contact these agencies directly. Students interested in the Geriatric Social Work Scholarship should contact Ruth Dunkle at geriatric.fellowship@umich.edu or call 734-763-6575.