The Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education–Veterans Health Administration (HPPAE-VHA) partnership is in full swing! This partnership implements the HPPAE program, a field-based model for training advanced level master’s social work students in geriatric competencies, in select VHA Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center (GRECC) sites and non-GRECC VHA sites. Pat Volland, principal investigator of HPPAE and director of the Social Work Leadership Institute (SWLI), has successfully led the initiative, introducing the model in nine GRECC and two non-GRECC sites to date, as well as in 97 social work programs prior to the HPPAE-VHA initiative.
To further the success and sustainability of the HPPAE model and continue building the partnership with the VA, the John A. Hartford Foundation awarded the CSWE Gero-Ed Center $1.2 million to partner with SWLI and transition the HPPAE program into CSWE. By the end of this year the HPPAE program will be fully institutionalized within the CSWE Gero-Ed Center and all HPPAE field-based resources will be integrated into and accessible from the Center’s website. An additional three VHA/GRECC sites and one VA hospital will join the initiative.