Social work field placements are considered the signature pedagogy of the social work profession. Traditionally, students are placed in a single agency for the academic year. Given that antitrafficking intervention is fairly new to the social work profession, interns may not be able to get the most out of an experience in a single agency. Using…

Derived from Buddhism, mindfulness is a unique approach for understanding human suffering and happiness that has attracted rapidly growing interest among health care professionals. In this article I describe current thinking about the concept of mindfulness and elaborate on why and how mindfulness-based interventions have potential within the…

With focus on interdisciplinary education models, social work and physical therapy faculty from two proximate universities partnered to create an evidence-based geriatric assessment and brief intervention research, training, and service project for community-dwelling older adults. Assessment tools and interventions were selected from the…

This article focuses on the design and implementation of an interdisciplinary geriatric educational project at a small New England University. A novel, affective teaching approach of Readers Theater is highlighted as a beginning classroom instructional strategy for interdisciplinary students. The physical and psychosocial considerations for health…

Gatekeepers, or nontraditional referral sources, have proven to be an effective means of case finding and outreach for mental health needs of isolated senior citizens. A two-year project administered by county public health department found the gatekeeper concept to be an effective means of case finding in the public health setting. (ABL)

This article describes a Delphi study to identify research priorities of gerontological social work practitioners and to compare these priorities with those of social work academic researchers. A national expert panel of 52 gerontological social work practitioners completed questionnaires to delimit a set of high-priority research topics. Findings…

In gerontology and geriatrics, learning often requires both the acquisition of new facts and a change in attitude towards elderly persons. Games, in addition to stimulating a desire to learn, are powerful instruments to change attitudes. This paper introduces games currently being used by the Gateway Geriatric Education Center to teach…

End-of-life circumstances have changed dramatically in recent years. In the past century life expectancy has increased by 62 percent and people are living longer with chronic illness. This article discusses evolving health practices and policies in end-of-life decisions. Treatments to prolong life and provide comfort, and interventions that hasten…

There is a growing need for professional psychology training in nursing home settings, and nursing homes provide a rich environment for teaching geropsychology competencies. We describe the nursing home training component of our Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Predoctoral Internship and Geropsychology Postdoctoral Fellowship programs. Our…