Animal-assisted social work at Flash Farm

INTRODUCTION: Flash Farm (FF) is a purpose-built therapeutic farm where people come to undertake animal-assisted social work (SW) including animal assisted educational activities to improve social, emotional, and cognitive wellbeing. For La Trobe University’s Bachelor of Social Work students, field education includes approximately 14 weeks of supervised placement. For the past 6 years, FF has provided field education placements to SW and welfare students, where students attend the farm each day and engage in a range of activities including individual animal-assisted therapy (A-AT) sessions and group sessions that include life and social skills and psycho-educational workshops. APPROACH: In this autoethnographic article, we consider the different perspectives that need to align for a successful student placement. We will discuss the perspectives of the university field education team who are looking at which student might be a suitable match for this placement, and the FF team who are looking for a student who will fit in with the farm operations. In addition, we discuss the perspective of the university field education liaison officer (FELO) who provides oversight and troubleshooting, and the student who wants to learn about social work practice and to integrate the theories that they have learned at university. IMPLICATIONS: This auto-ethnography has been prepared to shine a light on the opportunities and complexities of A-AT and SW field education. Although outside the scope of this article, the experience of the clients and the animals needs to be considered in determining what constitutes successful social work placements.