While all our field placements offer the chance for our Master of Social Work students to engage in real-world client services, sometimes those opportunities collide with something larger.

MSW@USC student Olivia Tucker lives near Flint, Michigan, where for the past two years residents have been dealing with the effects of living with contaminated water. With the city of Flint tens of millions of dollars in debt, its government decided to save money by disconnecting itself from the established Detroit Water and Sewage Department and finding its own water source – in this case, the polluted Flint River.

Residents, many of them living below the poverty line, have had to deal with the physical and mental stress of living without clean running water. As part of her field placement with Catholic Charities in Flint, Tucker is spearheading the development and management of a program to address some of the secondary effects of living with unusable, polluted water.

“It’s almost turned into a blame game. The anger is obviously appropriate and understandable for the population, but no one really seems to be trying to meet their behavioral health and mental health needs,” she said.

Hear Tucker speak about her experience working with people who have been traumatized by the situation in Flint and her plan to help make their lives better.