Simmons School Social Work 2009 Graduates — Where are they now?
Starting a Career in Forensic Social Work
Lynnette Littles, a 2009 Simmons School of Social Work graduate, has just started working at her first job as a social worker with MHM Services, Inc. at Bridgewater State Hospital. She is a clinician on the forensic unit where she provides treatment and other services to incarcerated patients with mental health issues. Lynnette states "The job is a perfect match for me; I love the job and the people I work with. This is the population I wanted to work with."
After twenty years working in the health care industry, Lynnette returned to college to complete her B.A degree at the University of Massachusetts. Compelled to move ahead in her career, she decided to go directly to graduate school. In 2007 she was accepted as a full-time student at Simmons School of Social Work, graduating two years later in May of 2009.
How did Lynnette's education at Simmons help to prepare her for her job? Lynnette's first year field placement was at Solutions for Living, a community based family agency, where she learned about working with complex systems and about providing clinical services to families. For her second year placement, Lynnette was at the Department of Mental Health unit at the Erich Lindeman Center and the Solomon Carter Fuller Mental Health Center. According to Lynnette, this internship "gave me the understanding and experience necessary to work in the field of forensic social work. Having the ability to work with people with persistent and severe mental illness helped me to strengthen my knowledge of diagnosis and to feel more comfortable and confident with recognizing psychiatric symptoms."
Rigorous and relevant course work and strong connections with professors also helped Lynnette achieve her professional goals. "Professors, staff, and peers were always available to help me process some of my difficult cases and to think about how to use theories to assess and work with clients." Lynnette goes on to say, "Professor Lynn Sanford was a huge inspiration to me." Professor Sanford, a nationally recognized expert in Forensics and Social Work, teaches classes on Forensic Social Work Practice with Adults and Adolescents and Child and Adolescent Trauma.