Student: Cherann Beer Field
Instructor: Jared Juett, LCSW
Adrienne Graf, PSU Field Placement Development Specialist, had the pleasure of speaking with Jared Juett, LCSW and Cherann Beer about Cherann’s experience as an Advanced MSW intern at Aviva Health in Roseburg, Oregon. As someone who is Portland based but has deep family ties to Roseburg and Douglas County, Adrienne was excited to learn more about how her fellow social workers are serving the Douglas County community.
Aviva health is a federally qualified health clinic rooted in a mission and vision of helping those who are lacking resources. The health clinic started working with people who were experiencing homelessness in downtown Roseburg, and has expanded their services to work with people throughout Douglas County who need their care. As a part of their mission to serve rural communities, Aviva has expanded to create clinics in nearby Sutherlin, Drain, Glide and Myrtle Creek.
Aviva opened the Roseburg Family Medicine Residency last summer, and will have medical residencies available on a 3 year rotation. The clinic also hosts nursing interns and was eager to include social work interns for the academic year 2020-21. Field Instructor Jared Juett commented that “Aviva really is functioning as a teaching clinic in our community, and it made sense to include social workers.” As a teaching clinic, Aviva supported Cherann to shadow many interventions and sessions she might not have gotten the opportunity to observe in another setting. Because the patients are used to people coming in and out of sessions, there was a fairly universal willingness to have Cherann shadow sessions.
Cherann immediately felt a part of the team when she started her MSW internship in October 2020. She was welcomed by everyone and encouraged by the Vice President of Behavioral Health, Dr. Lorie DeCarvalho, to participate in as many meetings as she wanted in order to understand the full functioning of the clinic and feel integrated with the team.
Cherann is passionate about serving Douglas County, and Aviva Health was the perfect fit. Cherann has been working in Child Welfare in Douglas County and was very familiar with the landscape of local resources. In smaller communities, this can be a blessing and a challenge. The benefits can be that resource providers are integrated into the community and know one another better; the drawbacks of course can be the lack of available options and geographical distances within rural communities which make it difficult for people to access what is available.
Cherann experienced Jared as a very flexible field instructor, which was essential to her success at Aviva. When the county was moved to ‘extreme risk’ during COVID, Cherann needed to pivot to remote work after being in the clinic in person. Jared was supportive and included Cherann in sessions via telehealth while she was working remotely. This spring, Cherann contracted COVID and was out of the clinic for 6 weeks while recovering. Jared sent her materials to read and videos to watch so she could stay engaged and continue learning while she was out sick. Cherann commented regarding Jared’s supervision approach: “Your supervisor is really in it with you, and knows your limitations and wants you to succeed.” Jared’s ongoing support, coupled with materials and continuing education opportunities he shared with her while she was at home recovering, really helped ease her anxiety about being absent from the clinic and the internship hours she was missing.
Jared eagerly noted how Cherann came in with high energy, and was willing to learn anything. “She was super ready to jump into a fast paced clinic. Not every social worker would do well in a setting like this: you have to be flexible, open, and confident, and Cherann was able to do that easily”. Cherann has learned and performed so well at her field placement at Aviva Health that she was just recently hired into a full time behavioral health consultant role at the Sutherlin clinic, where she will get to continue doing what she is passionate about – serving her local community. Congratulations, Cherann!
Thank you Jared and Cherann for taking the time to share about your experience together this year, and thank you for all the work you do supporting your communities!