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| Tamar June, MSW/MPH Student (Dec '18) |
I wish to introduce myself as
Tamar June, a first year Master's in Public Health and Master's in Social Work
student. I am honored and humbled to be part of this dual program at the
University of Georgia as what I now know of the benefits of interdisciplinary
work seem to align perfectly with my experiences and interests moving forward
into the workplace and ultimately the way I wish to live and interact with the
surrounding community.
I have been at the University
of Georgia for nearly 5 years and during that time have gained even more of an
appreciation of how UGA interacts with my hometown of Athens. I grew up
attending the schools within the Clarke County School District and find myself
consistently advocating for outreach into our community to engage families in
all that the university has to offer. Through my understanding, it is an
imperative to give back knowledge and skills learned through collegiate studies
to the communities we live in in creative and innovative ways that can engage
more than one profession into multi-faceted projects and programs. The American
Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (2016) cites to just this by
encouraging the creation of social responses to a changing environment. Environmental
changes negatively affect health, and the changing global environment requires
social and policy responses, innovative partnerships, community engagement, and
human security interventions to strengthen individuals and communities
(American Academy of Social Work, 2016).
The concept of a ‘dual
professional’ means to me an individual who employs multiple frameworks of
understanding together, even if they are in seeming discordance with one
another. While the ethical priority of a clinical social worker may be to
protect and value the self-determination of the individual first and foremost,
the ethical priority of a public health practitioner is necessarily to protect
the population and engender sustainable health. When situations come that test the
boundaries of either profession, it should not be the denying of values or
ethics that plays out, but rather the creative marriage of the two – how can we
both protect our population, foster prevention and health, and encourage
self-determination. This can and should be accomplished, and it is dual
professionals that may lead the charge.
Thinking more abstractly, we
are all multi-professionals. We have our employment(s), our homes, our schools,
our activism, our churches, where we are able to share our thoughts from and
for different perspectives. Identity as a dual professional comes with directly
and explicitly finding constant balances and doing so by building
cross-profession collaboration and appreciation. Collaborative networks seek to
bring disparate groups together so that they can work effectively and
synergistically together. Brokers support the controlled transfer of more
specialized knowledge between groups, serve to increase cooperation by liaising
with people from both sides of the gap, and improve efficiency by introducing
ideas and solutions from one isolated setting into another (Long, et al., 2013).
As a prospective dual
professional in Social Work and Public Health, I intend to represent both of my
professional affiliations with respect and dignity, as well as curiosity for
further development and success. This is how professions evolve and I fervently
believe that the contributions that MPH/MSW practitioners will make to both
fields, will be integral in the ever changing identity of both Social Work and Public Health in addition to Social
Work Public Health.
- Tamar June, MPH/MSW Candidate (December 2018)
Visit Tamar June's LinkedIn Profile.
References
American Academy of Social
Work & Social Welfare. (2016). Build financial capability for all.
Retrieved from http://aaswsw.org/grand-challenges-initiative/12-challenges/build-financial-capability-for-all
Long et al. Bridges, brokers
and boundary spanners in collaborative networks: a systematic review. BMC Health Services Research. 2013,
13:158
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