Reports and Fact Sheets
The Mental Health and Substance Use Workforce for Older Adults: In Whose Hands?
At least 5.6 to 8 million – nearly one in five – older adults in America have one or more mental health and substance use conditions. This IOM report, released in 2012, finds that core competencies in geriatric mental health/ substance use must be identified, developed, and refined and that targeted funding, such as as training, scholarships, and loan forgiveness, must be available for individuals to specialize in this area.
Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce
The ground-breaking 2008 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce, proposes a three-pronged approach to provide older adults and their families with quality healthcare: enhancing geriatric competence, increasing recruitment and retention, and improving care through models that address inefficiencies. The CSWE Gero-Ed Center’s goal to ensure that all social work graduates acquire gero-competencies at the generalist practice level is congruent with the IOM recommendation. A free PDF is available.
Numeracy and the Affordable Care Act: Opportunities and Challenges
The IOM Roundtable on Health Literacy commissioned a paper that addresses current research about people’s numeracy skill levels, the numeracy skills needed to select health plans and treatments, and information about how providers should communicate with individuals with low numeracy skills.
Geriatric Workforce Needs
The Geriatric Workforce Needs fact sheet, compiled by the CSWE Gero-Ed Center, contains essential information about the workforce needs in gero social work.
Assuring the Sufficiency of a Frontline Workforce: A National Study of Licensed Social Workers Executive Summary
NASW's benchmark 2005 study, Assuring the Sufficiency of a Frontline Workforce: A National Study of Licensed Social Workers Executive Summary, of a licensed sample of NASW members identified that less than 10 percent of social workers were specifically prepared to work with older adults, while at least 70 percent interacted with older adults across a wide range of practice settings.
White House Conference on Aging: Geriatric Health Care Workforce Issues
As part of the 2005 White House Conference on Aging, recommendations were drafted at the Mini-Conference on Geriatric Health Care Workforce Issues (PDF). Dr. JoAnn Damron-Rodriguez presented "Reality Check: Social Work" (PPT) as part of the mini-conference.
The Shortage of Social Workers Caring for Elders and Their Families in Social Work, Aging, and Public Policy
This Policy Bulletin (PDF) from the Institute of Geriatric Social Work and New York Academy of Medicine examines the geriatric workforce and public policy issues related to the provision of care in our rapidly aging society.