Conversations with Public Health and Social Work Professionals - Nina Cleveland, MPH, BSW

Nina Cleveland, MPH, BSW

Practice Coordinator, College of Public Health, University of Georgia

 

You may be familiar with Ms. Nina Cleveland in her role as Practice Coordinator or through taking one of her courses at the University of Georgia College of Public Health.  But did you know that in addition to having a Master of Public Health, she earned a Baccalaureate of Social Work and practiced as a social worker for many years before returning to graduate school for her MPH?  Recently Ms. Cleveland sat down with one of our MSW/MPH students, Prashikshya Karki (Dec '14), to speak about her own professional experiences in integrating the fields of social work and public health and to share insight into how she sees the dual degree students integrating the two disciplines in their placements.  She also gives some timely advice to current and graduating MSW/MPH students!

 

Tell us a little about your education and professional background.

I actually started out in nursing and finished my Bachelor in Social Work in 1993-1994.  From there I practiced as a social worker for about 15 years and worked mostly in mental health and drug and alcohol treatment.  During that time, I also started raising my 4 boys and went back to graduate school in 2004 to get my Masters in Public Health, Health Promotion and Behavior concentration.  Out of that program, I went to work for district public health as an Emergency Preparedness Specialist and then worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for a brief period, and then came here to the UGA College of Public Health.

 

What drew you to pursuing Public Health after you had so much experience in Social Work?

I had worked in nursing social work doing treatment and interventions at the individual level.  One of the things I always thought about in the back of my mind was that a certain number of people kept coming back, which had a lot to do with what was going on in their lives – the access to opportunities they had or didn't have, access to health care, and the barriers in their lives.  The idea of public health, health on the population level, was very intriguing to me, as well as the idea of prevention.  I really wanted to make a difference at the population level.

 

After earning your Masters in Public Health, did you find that those disciplines – Social Work and Public Health – complemented each other?

To me there is a very natural complement between public health and social work, especially as one of our core interests in public health is mental health.  For example, drinking and driving is a huge public health issue, and mental health and health co-morbidities is another example of that overlap.

 

How do you think the two fields can be integrated?

One example of integration is conducting needs assessments.  How do you assess the population you are working with, including what they need, the gaps in your service delivery and outreach, the gaps in your therapeutic intervention, and what is it your population needs.  Then, once you identify what that population needs, how do you evaluate that what you are doing is actually addressing these needs.  That is health promotion.  We first and foremost want to work at preventing those things that can affect our population and if we can’t prevent it full-on, we mitigate the impact on that population.  Where I also find a huge overlap is in epidemiology – there is a push towards evidence-based practice not only in medicine but within social work and the mental health arenas.  In these days of shrinking resource dollars, we have to make sure that we are using the money to make the biggest impact we can with the population we are working with.

 

Based on your observations, what do you think is the strength of having both a MSW and MPH?

Coming out of this intensive program, you really are on the fore front of knowledge of how to affect population health.  You can enter your field practicum/internship with the ability to hone both therapeutic intervention skills or community social work skills as well as program implementation and evaluation, and/or assessing the burden of disease in your population.  Upon graduation, you are coming out with those two skills sets that not very many people have, and I think it puts you worlds ahead of where you would be otherwise.

 

What has been your personal experience in implementing both your social work and public health skills and competencies?

Both when I worked in district health and now on-campus where I helped start, along with a team member, an office of emergency preparedness and a medical reserve corps.  The medical reserve corps responds to a lot of different emergency situations, specifically health care- and public health-related emergencies.  One of those elements is mental health.  We train our volunteers that the resiliency of the community depends on how people are able to process that disaster, and how quickly they are able to start healing and moving forward.  Psychological first aid training for our volunteers enables them to work with victims of disaster and help them start that road to resilience and recovery.  Psychological first aid training provides volunteers with training on how to talk to people who have experienced a disaster, and how to help connect them with resources.  That was really exciting for me because I had worked in mental health for so long and I knew the importance of that component in emergency response.  To me, that was a really good example of planning a population-level intervention, which is emergency response, and pulling in that mental health component by planning individual-level interventions as well.

 

What opportunities do you see for students with both MSW and MPH degrees?

I think it really opens up a lot of doors that would normally be open either on the public health side or the social work side.  Some examples from our integrated public health and social work internship/field practicum I have seen are students working in non-profit organizations who carry a case load of individual clients where they do therapeutic interventions while at the same time planning a fund-raising or awareness event for the issue, or developing a needs assessment to identify gaps in their service delivery.  So you have work at the micro level (as we talk about in social work) and at the macro level (as we talk about in public health) going on at the exact same time, driving each other, which I think is the dynamic piece in this and that really captures the concept of evidence-based practice.

 

This is a new dual degree program - what challenges do you see students facing when they are in the integrated field practicum/internship?

There have been a lot of challenges, and that’s something we just keep working on.  We are really fortunate that this program is supported by administrative leadership on both sides.  The challenges have been around truly integrating the two programs.  Sometimes students don't seem to understand the idea that they are doing two full Master's level programs in a condensed time period.  From the very beginning, it is intensive and at a breakneck pace.  You have to plan far in advance to stay on-track.  The other thing is communication between the two programs.  Students sometimes don’t realize that they are the common denominator in that communication process, so a lot of responsibility falls on them in making sure they talk with both their MPH and MSW advisors.  The integrated internship can also be a challenge because of differences in how the MSW and MPH programs are set up.  The MSW program is very pre-scripted while the MPH is not as much.  One of the biggest challenges has been in recruiting MSW preceptors to work with dual students because they are unfamiliar with the skill sets dual degree students bring to the placement.  We take time to sit down with preceptors to describe those skill sets.  When we do this, we can see the big light bulb above their head, and their eyes light up and they say, “oh my gosh, I have really needed that at my agency.”  Because we are so new, we are still doing a lot of educating in the field.  There have been some bugs to work out.  As with any new program, you look at what’s not working and you change or address it so that it’s better next time around.

 

What field placement settings do you think are the best fit for dual degree students?

The best fit for dual degree students is any program that wants to learn to implement and develop good evidence-based programs.  You fit really well with non-profits, in health care settings, and in behavioral health settings.  For example, in behavioral health settings, you can contribute to quality assurance activities, identifying evidence-based interventions, and evaluating programs.  I think there will be more and more opportunities for really good placements out there as our program continues to develop.

 

Do you have advice for current dual degree students?

Yes!  Come see me early, start thinking about field.  Realize that you are undertaking two full Master’s degrees at one time.  It’s going to be very fast-paced, and you have to stay on top of it.  But, at the end of the day, I think it is very much worth it because you are coming out with two full sets of skills that you can directly apply once you graduate. 

 

Any advice for recent graduates?

Stay connected!  Stay connected with each other – your network.  Because this program is so new, there are only a few of you out there.  Your colleagues practicing in the field will also know what is available out there.  Stay connected with me, too.  Email me, stay connected with our MPH newsletter – I post jobs that come across my desk.  I help students develop resumes or CVs, I can help you practice your interview skills, or anything like that.  Don’t think that once you graduate, we just cut you loose.  We want you to come back anytime you want to!