Basic Gerontological Competence for All Social Workers

Summary

Over the past decade, social work education has generally failed to mount a significant effort to better prepare its future practitioners to serve the needs of a growing aging population. The demographics of aging suggest a need and demand for social workers that specialize in services to older adults. However, there are insufficient programs, resources or interested students for expanding specialization opportu-nities. Specialization also does not address the growing realization by the profession that there is an enormous need for basic gerontological competency for all social workers. This paper presents data gathered by SAGE-SW, the John A. Hartford Foundation funded project at the Council on Social Education, that makes the case for strategic inclusion of aging education as an important consideration for social work education and teaching across the lifespan. The paper addresses numerous challenges to infusion or integration efforts aimed at restructuring the social work curriculum, and presents a model for infusing aging content into the basic BSW and MSW curricula in order to “gerontologize” the education of all Students.

Key Words:

• Aging
• specialization
• gerontological competencies
• content infusion
• social work curriculum