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Importance of MSW’s In Community-Based Aging Services
Bobbie Sackman, LMSW, Director of Public Policy with the Council of Senior Centers and Services (CSCS) of New York City
The perfect storm is swirling around us – increasing numbers of older New Yorkers living longer with a lack of professionally trained MSW social workers to work with them.
The need for community-based services including senior centers, case management
agencies, NORCs (naturally occurring retirement communities), adult day
services, mental health, housing and other services grows. In spite of
the fact that the opportunities for professionally trained social workers
will grow with it, structural barriers discourage them from working in
the field. On the other hand, there are tremendously satisfying challenges.
The goal of the aging service network is to allow seniors to “age
in place,” in their homes and communities with dignity – the
fulfillment of social work’s cardinal principle of self-determination.
Why are MSW level social workers critical to the aging services network?
Understanding who is growing old paints a poignant picture of the challenges
and the central role social workers need to play. The 85+ population grew
by almost 20% from 1990 to 2000, making it the fastest growing segment
of the city’s population. Let
that sink in. Community-based aging services (CBO’s) work with people
aged 60-100 – two generations! Diversity abounds – almost
one out of two elderly New Yorkers are a minority. Almost 20% of NYC’s
elderly live below poverty – twice the 10% national poverty rate.
As people live longer, the systems they interact with to access benefits
and services grow more complex. Many outlive their financial, social and
emotional supports. MSW–level social workers are trained to take
a systems approach to an individual that is strength-based, not only problem
based. From the viewpoint of the senior, having a professionally trained
social worker work with them holistically to help them maneuver through
complex governmental, financial, social service, medical, housing, other
service systems and familial situations is key to their ability to age
“in place”, as successfully and humanely as possible.
Undervalued Services
A recent infrastructure survey done by the Council of Senior Centers and
Services, “More With Less is Impossible”, documented the erosion
of the ability of CBO’s to meet their currently contracted services.
Seniors lose out as there is decreasing agency capacity to meet other
complex needs such as elder abuse, grandparents raising grandchildren,
mental health, family situations and diversity creating a need for bilingual
social workers. The services that help seniors live day-to-day are undervalued.
Structural barriers include low salaries, lack of a career ladder, insufficient
resources, and ageism. A recent Cornell University work force study of
266 directors of NYC senior centers found high job satisfaction –
85% reported being “very” or “somewhat satisfied”
with their jobs and 87% “would recommend this agency to a friend
as a place to work”. However, 40% would change their salaries, 18%
would like more funds and resources to work with, 11% would change the
physical space they work in, 9% want a better relationship with funders,
and 6% want less stress and decreased bureaucracy. Only 43% of the managers
surveyed held Master’s degrees. Lack of a career ladder in relatively
small or mid-sized agencies can lead some to change jobs.
High job satisfaction but inability to live on low salaries keeps professional
social workers out of the community-based system, however, that’s
where the action is growing.
The Perfect Storm
Social workers want to “solve someone’s problems” –
how do you solve old age? This thinking along with the historic concentration
of social work in “children and families” influences career
choices. Aging doesn’t hold the same status. Yet, social work can
make an enormously positive contribution to improve the lives of elderly
individuals.
Ironically, community-based social workers report that many MSW interns
find great satisfaction working with elderly clients and become a key
source of social work staff. Lack of MSW’s and large caseloads in
senior centers and other agencies sometimes preclude the supervision of
MSW students. More use of group supervision whereby a MSW consultant works
with the school and agencies to provide supervision could be helpful.
The perfect storm – as the numbers of elderly grow, the need for
MSW-level social workers grows, but government reduces funding. MSW trained
social workers are systemically cut out of the community-based aging system
by low salaries and lack of adequate funding of the infrastructure of
agencies. Competition stems from hospitals and other unionized agencies.
Consider some solutions; higher salaries are obvious. Some boards of directors
have made a commitment to raise funds to hire MSW’s. Agencies can
facilitate sending staff to social work school. Government can subsidize
loan forgiveness for working with low-income elderly. A collaboration
of social work schools, advocates and CBO’s could educate government
as to the benefit seniors would derive from professionally trained social
workers, both in the quality of their lives and in the savings government
could realize from the preventive nature of social work. These are the
reasons higher salaries and more agency resources are appropriate.
The perfect storm – age wave hits and MSW trained social workers
cannot afford to work in CBO’s – we cannot afford to let this
happen.