Engaging Students in Gerontological Work Through Innovative Caregiving Programming: Introduction to Three Brief Reports

Abstract

The number of Americans aged 65 and older is projected to increase from 35 million to 88.5 million in the first half of the 21st century. However, there is a serious gap between the number of health care and social service practitioners needed to work with the aging and the number available and trained to do so. The authors review current research on what works in engaging students in geriatric and gerontological work. The authors then present three projects from the Weinberg Caregiver Initiative as illustrations of innovative caregiver programming building on community-based partnerships which successfully incorporate aspects of best practices in gerontological education to increase student interest in work with the aging populations, while serving older adults and their caregivers.

KEYWORDS:

• active learning
• aging education
• caregivers

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We wish to thank our community partners and program participants for their invaluable collaboration, and our students for their commitment to older adults and their families.

FUNDING

The projects described in these brief reports were supported in whole or in part by a grant from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.