Interprofessional health-care models have been largely recognized as a critical component of effective and efficient health-care provision. While many health professions have established methods of exposing their students to interprofessional health models, social work has been slow to join in on this educational movement. In an effort to provide…

Professional shortages of geriatrically trained social workers pose a barrier to mental health care for older adults. Integrating graduate social work interns into primary care settings may increase the availability of trained social workers. However, few studies provide guidance on how to develop an interprofessional healthcare placement focused…

Purpose of the Study: This paper is a revision of the Kent Award Lecture given at the Annual Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America held in New Orleans, Louisiana, in November, 2010. Design and Methods: This paper looks at the evolution in geriatric social work assessment and outcomes research and concludes with observations of the…

Although several interprofessional education projects have addressed training allied health students for effective teamwork in geriatrics, few curriculum evaluation studies have examined differences in learning outcomes between interprofessional and traditional uniprofessional approaches, especially for social work students. This paper compares…

This study examined whether attitudes toward interprofessional collaboration (Physician-Nurse, Physician-Social Worker, Nurse-Social Worker) held by medical, social work, and nursing students changed after completing an interprofessional curriculum consisting of (a) Interprofessional Education Development Session and (b) the Senior Aging and…

Research has highlighted the challenges social services professionals face in providing quality psychosocial care to persons living in skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). A primary area of difficulty is addressing the needs of persons with mental health conditions, including problematic behaviors associated with dementia. This study evaluated the…

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: Elder self-neglect (ESN) represents half or more of all cases reported to adult protective services. ESN directly affects older adults and also their families, neighbors, and the larger communities around them. ESN has public health implications and is associated with higher than expected mortality rates, hospitalizations, long-term care…

Changing U.S. demographics and family composition are challenging social work education programs to reposition and reconsider how to prepare students for practice in the field of geriatrics. Implications for future social service and health care needs include ongoing training and education of students with competencies in serving geriatric…

Purpose: Making good consumer decisions requires having good information. This study compared long-term-care recommendations among various types of health professionals. Design and Methods: We gave randomly varied scenarios to a convenience national sample of 211 professionals from varying disciplines and work locations. For each scenario, we…

Examines the importance of economic factors in physician and other health service utilization among older adults living in Bermuda. Using data from a national survey of 500 Bermudian elders, findings reveal economic factors to be unrelated to the use of physician services directly, but to be significant determinants of the use of other health…

The Geriatric Social Work Practicum Partnership Program was funded to attract graduate students to the field of aging and to strengthen field education in geriatric social work. Rotation was selected to achieve the program's goals to provide students with exposure to the spectrum of care in geriatric social work services. This paper describes the…