For Immediate Release
Contact:
Lydell Thomas
Manager, Marketing and Communications
1.703.519.2057, lthomas@cswe.org
Alexandria, VA, August 1, 2013 – The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) National Center for Gerontological Social Work Education (Gero-Ed Center) has been awarded a 1-year, $290,000 grant from the New York Community Trust to develop the Partnerships for Person-Centered and Participant-Directed Long-Term Services and Supports (Partnerships) project in collaboration with the National Resource Center for Participant-Directed Services at the Boston College Graduate School of Social Work. The Partnerships project will build the workforce pipeline for Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRCs) and, more broadly, for the Aging and Disabilities (A/D) Network.
The Partnerships project will recruit and train BSW and MSW students in the use of person-centered and participant-directed competencies and will evaluate the outcomes of the training. The project will target the ADRCs and social work programs in the Administration for Community Living’s (ACL) eight Enhanced ADRC Options Counseling states (Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin). The state-level training developed by this project will complement ACL’s national options counseling training at the eight ADRCs and has the potential to be used regionally and nationally.
In addition, a New York City based home health care agency and social work program will participate. More than 1 million elders with very diverse backgrounds live in New York City; the population size and diversity will provide a distinctive opportunity to pilot a program with utility for other states and social work programs in need of person-centered or participant-directed training and curricular resources for serving diverse populations. The lack of a New York City ADRC also means the project can develop materials that would be useful for other locations without ADRCs. Combined, the eight states and New York City give the project the capacity for nationwide impact and sustainability.
As noted by Dr. Nancy Hooyman, CSWE Gero-Ed Center co-principal investigator, “This partnership bridging education and practice will, over time, benefit older adults and persons with disabilities served by the growing number of ADRCs.”
The Partnerships project builds on the CSWE Gero-Ed Center’s successful use of the planned change model of curricular and organizational change, which garners key stakeholder support, conducts thorough curriculum assessments to determine courses to be targeted for infusion, and tests strategies for curricular change. The social work programs participating in this project have effectively used this planned change model to infuse gerontological competencies and content. Given the experience of the Gero-Ed Center staff and social work faculty members in effectively implementing this model, it will readily be adapted to promote the infusion of person-centered and participant-directed competencies within the nine social work programs initially, and additional programs nationally, over time.
“This landmark workforce and capacity-building initiative represents an academic-practice partnership that will prepare graduates for the changing landscape in health care services and delivery, especially as it relates to working effectively and holistically with older adults and people with disabilities” said Darla Spence Coffey, CSWE president.
This workforce and capacity-building project will advance the social work profession and benefit the A/D Network by preparing graduates for the rapid competency-based changes advanced by the ACL and occurring within the Network nationwide. The Partnerships project also reflects the CSWE Gero-Ed Center’s new mission to build bridges between education and practice.
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CSWE is a nonprofit national association representing more than 2,500 individual members as well as graduate and undergraduate programs of professional social work education. Founded in 1952, this partnership of educational and professional institutions, social welfare agencies, and private citizens is recognized by the Council on Higher Education Accreditation as the sole accrediting agency for social work education in the United States.
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