Opportunity for Actors
Patient simulations are becoming a big part of healthcare and are offering flexible, decent-paying job opportunities for actors. You can play a potential patient for K-State student social workers to help them evaluate and council subjects dealing with addition issues. These can be really fun experiences and expand your skills to a new arena. Details are posted below. Email David M. Ollington at dollingt@ksu.edu for details and to sign up. Joelle will be happy to coach you as well.
Directions: You will meet with various social work students who will practice completing an initial session with you. The students have been informed that this will be an intake appointment with a new client who is attempting to access mental health services at the mental health agency the student is a social worker at.
Most volunteer actors will be meeting with a total of 2 students on Thursday, October 26th from 1:10-1:40 p.m. and 1:45-2:15 p.m.
The purposes of this assignment are to:
1. Allow students to practice the 6 components of the initial social work interview
1 – Introductions
2 – Determine client expectations
3 – Emphasize client responsibility
4 – Explain difficulties of the process
5 – Clarify your role
6 – Discuss policy & ethical factors
2. Identify students’ inteviewing strengths related to empathy, authenticity, and communication skills.
3. Identify communication barriers students repeatedly make without realizing.
Before the practice session takes place:
I will be emailing you the Zoom link you’ll be using to complete the practice session with the client. If you do not already have the Zoom app downloaded on your PC or
phone, please download this app PRIOR to the time you will be participating in one or more practice sessions.
If you run into technology problems on the day the practice session is supposed to take place:
I will be providing the student(s) who will be completing their practice sessions with you both a phone number and email address that they can reach you at, in addition to providing you the students’ information. If you and the student are unable to resolve the issue, you can resort to conducting the session over the phone or through another online app that you both are familiar with. The reason why the students have been instructed to use Zoom for this assignment, is because it will allow them to record the session. After they type up their case note, they will be instructed to watch their video in order to evaluate their strengths and challenges in relation to addressing counterproductive communications. BUT we’ll figure something out if recording isn’t an option for whatever reason.
Your duties:
1. Before getting started: Verify the student is recording the session. Both you and the student should be able to see a recording light on the screen that confirms the meeting is being recorded.
2. While conducting the practice session: Students only have have a maximum of 30 minutes to complete this assignment with you. You will need to watch the clock and end the session once 25 minutes is up. Use the remaining 5 minutes to provide the student constructive feedback on:
· How you felt they did,
· IF you would make a follow-up appointment with them based on the experience (be honest), and
· 1 thing they should try to work on when they enounter communication barriers with future clients.
Details about the client role you’ll be portraying:
1. You are in need of mental health services – but you get to decide why. You can either use the suggested role play scenario below or come up with one of your own. Some of the volunteer actors choose to create a role play based on a client they’ve worked with.
2. Making today’s mental health appointment was not your idea. Someone else pressured you to make this appointment. That person could be a loved one (for example, a significant other threatening to end the relationship unless things change), a corrections officer, a child custody agency, or someone else.
ROLE PLAY EXAMPLE: You have been court ordered to participate in an inpatient substance use disorder treatment program, mental health counseling, anger management group, OR parenting educational program for caregivers who are attempting to regain custody of their children. This will be your 1st session with the social worker you have been assigned.
3. You want to be ameanable to working with this social worker and/or your problem – but only to a point. During some point of the interview, you will need to insert 1 of the following 3 curve ball options:
CURVE BALL OPTIONS: 1. You agree that you have a problem with something related to why you are forced to be there, but not to the extent the agency or society might believe. For example, you agree methamphetamine is a problem for you, but do not view your almost daily marijuana usage as a problem. 2. Ask the social worker during the session if they’ve ever had a problem with drugs or alcohol OR has a mental health diagnosis OR has kids. If they say no, come to the conclusion that there’s no way they will ever be able to help you. 3. You come to the conclusion that the social worker is discriminating against you because of your race/ethnicity, age, sexual orienation, or education level.
I want this to be challenging for the students, but I’d also like you to help them end on a happy note! I also suggest deciding on how to respond to a question or statement made by a student BASED PRIMARILY ON HOW THE STUDENT MADE YOU FEEL IN THE MOMENT.
What the students have done to prepare for this practice session: The students you’ll be role playing with have already completed 2 previous practice sessions (building client rapport and assisting clients in carrying out goals and overcoming obstacles) designed to identify and improve upon social work skills they lacked confidence in at the start of the semester. The practice session is meant to prepare them for overcoming communication barriers with clients.