Cindy Gordon, Clinical Director, Adult Behavioral Health and Psychiatric Emergency Services, Boston Medical Center
Dispatches from the Field is a monthly feature at Innovate@BCSW designed to showcase the school’s commitment to field education, and to fostering fruitful relationships with organizations, both in Boston and around the world, who are providing critical services to those living at the margins of society.
Agency partner: Cindy Gordon, MSW ’93, Clinical Director, Adult Behavioral Health and Psychiatric Emergency Services
Organization: Boston Medical Center (BMC)
Services: Gordon is tasked with supervising a team of more than 27 clinicians who work in the adult behavioral health and emergency departments at BMC.
Relationship with BCSSW: “Every year, we work closely with interns from the Boston College School of Social Work, and with other schools in the area. Our interns are fully integrated into our team and provide the same services as our clinical staff, including individual, group, and crisis intervention. They also participate in clinical treatment team meetings.
Their presence is critical to our organization for a number of reasons. We operate a large adult outpatient behavioral health clinic where we see many patients. On a practical level, our patients have better and faster access to services thanks to our interns.
I also find that I learn a ton from the students, who bring in all sorts of resources from their coursework: new articles, new books, and new ideas that help our team to think differently about how to address the problems that arise in our work.
I may be biased since I graduated from BCSSW, but I find that the Boston College students are of a very high caliber. They always come to work prepared, and it’s great to see how excited they are to learn. They’re like sponges, soaking up so much information, and they bring a high level of energy with them to work, so high that it’s contagious.
I really believe in the importance of mentoring, guiding, and educating the next generation of social workers, and it’s an honor for me to be able to do that as a partner in BC’s Field Education program.”