Objectives: This study examines the impact of social work interventions in aging on quality of life (QOL) and cost outcomes in four categories (health, mental health, geriatric evaluation and management, and caregiving). Methods: Systematic review methods are employed. Databases were searched for articles published in English between 2004 and 2012…

This study addresses the transfer of training to quality care practices among leisure services professionals who serve older adults by applying the Social Structure and Personality approach, a social psychology framework that accounts for layers of influence in that process. Multiple demographic and policy changes contribute to a need for a…

This study consists of an oral history project that partnered MSW students with community dwelling older adults from diverse backgrounds. It used a comparison group with a pretest and posttest design and a sample of 74 MSW students to evaluate changes in their confidence levels, future plans of working with older adults, and geriatric…

Professional practice with older adults is performed in a variety of settings and across a broad range of areas. Planning for care throughout the end of life represents an increasingly important aspect of work with older adults as a result of the nation's aging demographic and concomitant health care needs. Community-based geriatric case managers…

The education mission of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is to train health professionals to benefit VA and the United States. One approach for achieving that mission, along with VA's research and clinical missions, was the establishment of Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Centers (GRECCs) in 1975. These were developed at VA…

The international community is facing the pressure of aging societies. In the United States of America, we will shortly be facing the aging of baby boomers, a dramatically large population expected to peak as senior citizens in 2030 at 70 million. Global societies are facing a crisis: lack of adequately trained and emotionally oriented personnel…

Purpose of the study: The Alpert Medical School of Brown University began to integrate geriatrics content into all preclerkship courses and key clerkship cases as part of a major medical school curriculum redesign in 2006. This study evaluates students' responses to geriatrics integration within the curriculum using journals kept by volunteer…

This article summarizes data from the 2008 Symposium Charting the Future for New York State Workforce Training and Education in Aging: The Stakeholder Perspective and the 2009 report "Workforce Training and Education: The Challenge for Academic Institutions". This research is the outcome of a collaborative State Society on Aging of New…

This study sought to identify client, professional, and employment characteristics that enhance licensed social workers' commitment to aging practice. A series of binary logistic regressions were performed using data from 181 licensed, full-time social workers who reported aging as their primary specialty area as part of the 2004 NASW's national…

Important home and community-based issues in the lives of older adults and caregivers relate to end of life. It is well documented that education on end of life, including curricula and textbook content for health and human service professionals, is lacking. This study analyzed another aspect of education: continuing education sessions offered at…

This paper describes three innovative European initiatives in postgraduate education in gerontology. The first is the European Masters Program in Gerontology (EuMaG), developed as an interdisciplinary joint program, supported and delivered by 22 European universities. Second, the Nordplus initiative to increase mobility of students and staff in…

This study examined non-geriatrician physicians' experiences in a geriatrics-focused faculty development program, and effects of the program on their geriatrics knowledge and their teaching and practice. In-depth interviews were conducted with all physicians (n = 26) participating in the Dean's Faculty Scholars in Aging program. Most participants…

A training curriculum on mental health and aging was developed and disseminated to 32 natural caregivers throughout a frontier state using a train-the-trainer model. Those certified as trainers included social workers, religious professionals, volunteers, long-term care employees, nurses, home health workers, and professional and informal…

Reviews the important pedagogical, clinical, and ethical issues involved in the design and use of case studies in the study of aging. Reviews literature in narrative and clinical ethics on case studies as stories, including consideration of facts and values, debate on generalization versus specificity, and the need for interpreters. Considers the…

This manual was designed to aid undergraduate social work students working in a model field-site program for gerontological social work education. It is based on work completed on an Administration on Aging project in Texas entitled, "A Statewide Faculty Development Program for Undergraduate Social Work Educators in Elder Care." The…