Gerontological Social Work— The Wave of the Future

By Kenneth Onaitis, MSW/CSW, Co-Chair, GSWC, Director, Burden Center for the Aging

Aging is a growing reality—a fact the news’s deluge of baby boomer statistics portends as the demographic wave of the future. Under the leadership of Past Chairs Barbara Rinehart and Beatrice Maloney and current Chair Ann Brownhill Gubernick, the Gerontological Social Work Committee (GSWC) is putting a face on the statistics by looking closely at issues such as family caregivers, elder abuse, mental health services and geriatric social work education.

At the fall 2003 meeting, Ms Patricia Volland, MSW/MBA, Senior Vice-President of Finance and Administration, The New York Academy of Medicine, was guest speaker. She is also Principal Investigator at The John A. Hartford Foundation Geriatric Social Work Practicum Partnership Program. The Academy is the Coordinating Center for this educational initiative.

The Future is Now

In her presentation, “The Future is Now: Preparing Social Work Students for an Aging Society”, Ms. Volland described the Academy’s commitment to improving opportunities for people to live longer and better lives. Her early research found that people who hire social workers to help them navigate the difficulties of the health care system did not believe that the Social Workers were adequately trained to handle the complexities of need. Her report concluded that a disconnect existed between the theories taught in the classroom and the realities of practice in the field.

Education Increases the Size and Power of the Geriatric Field

The John A. Hartford Foundation, hoping to increase the level of expertise in the geriatric area, responded to the research by sponsoring a symposium where national experts attested to the need for students to be exposed to a diverse elderly population, to experience services across the aging network, and to have mentor role models, experts in the field of aging to work with. The Foundation funded social work programs at universities in New York (SUNY/Albany and Hunter College/CUNY), California, Texas and Michigan to focus on and invest resources in field education, to change the traditional method of social work field education, and to expose students to a diverse elderly population. Their hope was that after graduation these students would continue working with older adults.

Although funding has ended, Hartford’s $28 million investment has increased the size and power behind the wave of geriatric field education. The positive outcomes of Hartford’s Practicum Partnership Program (PPP) affect clients, agencies, students and the profession. The model programs were so successful, the participating schools of social work elected to integrate the components of University/Community Partnerships; Competency-Driven Education for Geriatric Social Work; Integrated Field Education Across Multiple Program, Populations, Practice Methods and Disciplines; Expanded Roles for Field Instructors; and the Focused Recruitment of Students to Geriatric Social Work into their programs. A summary of student outcomes indicates a growth in recruitment of students. Students in the PPP reflect the diversity of the population of older adults.

Providing Opportunities for Older Adults to Stay In Charge

The involvement of NYAM with Hartford’s PPP has led to work for the future. The National Leadership Coalition (NLC) was formed in 2002. Coalition members represent major leadership groups in practice and education including the National Association of Social Workers, the National Association of Deans and Directors, Health and Human Services, the Veteran’s Administration, the Council on Social Work Education and others. The goal is to increase opportunities for older adults to stay in charge of their own lives by producing a competently trained social work labor force. NLC accomplishments include developing a common definition of social work for labor force studies; synthesizing information about the current social work labor force supply and producing a comprehensive report which summarizes known information regarding the cost effectiveness of social work services. NLC is also developing a proposal to study supply, demand, need and use of social workers serving the elderly in the US; identifying factors which will produce future demands for social workers; forming a partnership with HHS to address the supply of social workers serving older adults; identifying current and potential resources; and supporting a federal appropriations bill that would direct Health and Human Services to study the social work force in long term care.

Partnership with NASW

In addition, NYAM is identifying new partners to replicate PPP models and is partnering with the NYC-NASW Chapter, GSWC and the NYC Department for the Aging (DFTA) to assess the knowledge and skill level of practitioners within DFTA’s 600 contract agencies.

Ms. Volland noted the difficulties in obtaining baseline knowledge about the actual numbers of social workers working with older adults and emphasized that further research is needed. NASW reported that 62% of social workers work with older adults. Yet, only 3% of social work students select aging as a field of practice.

The next GSWC quarterly meeting is January 27, 2004 at 6:00 pm. Robert Schachter, NASW, NYC Chapter Executive Director will spotlight the new Center for Social Work Policy and Practice. The agenda will also include reports from PACE and updates about the advocacy initiatives to promote Elder Justice on the federal level. All interested MSW students and NASW members are welcome to attend.

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