Funding – The Bertha Rosenstadt Trust
Strengthening Field Education
Field education is the cornerstone of the MSW educational experience – practicums provide our students with exceptional learning opportunities. As a Faculty, we are committed to strengthening the all-important ties we have with partner organizations who offer practicum to our students. The Bertha Rosenstadt Trust Fund in Health Research – which is available to FIFSW, as well as to all other Health Sciences Faculties at U of T – provides an important means for accomplishing this goal.
How does it work? An organization agrees to take a pre-negotiated number of MSW practicum students for three consecutive years. In return, the organization receives a three-year grant to engage in a research project, developed in consultation with FIFSW, that expands social work field education knowledge as well as field education capacity. Please submit research ideas (2-page maximum) to Practicum Office.
For the FIFSW Practicum Office, this fund is a valuable way to secure long-term commitments for MSW student placements, while also promoting cutting-edge research in field education.
The Trust commemorates Bertha Rosenstadt, who was one of the first Jewish women to graduate from the University of Toronto (BA 1898, MA 1899). In 2015, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, the Bertha Rosenstadt Trust Showcase presented some of the outstanding initiatives funded by the trust. Learn more about this event.
Projects
Below are brief descriptions of the three-year projects that were supported in the most recent round of funding.
SickKids – The Hospital for Sick Children
Goal: to support the development of an evidence-informed and practice-based evidence model of field instruction supervision.
Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
Goal: to evaluate the use of simulation to teach social work students how to conduct either a Mental Status Examination (MSE) or a Suicide Risk Assessment.
Women’s College Hospital
Goal: to increase capacity for student Social Work learners through implementation of a new teaching model at Women’s College Hospital Academic Family Health Team.
Unity Health
Goal: to identify key content to clinical practice and deliver content in education sessions during placement to prepare students with necessary knowledge and skills to work with patients and families.
North York General Hospital
Title: Comparing attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions around offering a field placement.
Goal: to examine Social Workers’ Attitudes, Beliefs, and Perceptions of Offering a Social Work Field Placement.