The number of Americans over 65 will more than double, from 34.8 million in 2000 to 70.3 million in 2030. The coming decades will bring about unprecedented demand for social services for the elderly. In this paper we assess the response of the social-work profession to the demand for trained social workers with course work in the broad field of aging. Nearly 30% of master-level programs in social work were selected. Content analysis of the curricula offered through these programs was performed. The objective was to evaluate the share of the gerontologically oriented courses in social-work curricula. Findings suggest that the emphasis in social-work curricula content dealing with one of the fastest growing sectors of our population is limited in currently accredited programs. We found an overall average of 3 courses, mostly offered as electives.
Notes
*t = 2.22, p = .03.
*t = 3.18, p = .004.
*t = 2.18, p = .033.
*t = 0.14, p = .887.
*t = − 0.058, p = .95.
*t = − 0.043, p = .67.