Volume 2, Number 1 - Winter 2007
In This Issue: Diversity
Aging as an issue of diversity is often overlooked even though ageism is a prejudice that all groups in our society face. This issue of Aging Times promotes the infusion of aging through the intersections of age, race, gender, sexual orientation, social class, and disability.
Diversity & Aging: New Perspectives on Cultural Competence
Molly Everett Davis, George Mason University
Social workers are expected to be culturally-competent, but what does that mean and what does it require in terms of working with older adults? One professor presents her framework for addressing this challenge.
Diversity Resources
Syllabi
Teaching Modules
Class Exercises
Bibliographies
Faculty Development Opportunities
CSWE Now Accepting Proposals for the Gero-Ed Track!
Submit your gero proposal today for the Gero-Ed Track at APM.
2nd Annual Anita Rosen Gerontology Awards for Outstanding Student Poster
Submission Deadline: April 27, 2007
Encourage your students to submit a poster at the upcoming APM to be eligible for this generous award.
Gero-Ed Forum - February 2-4, 2007 - Charleston, SC
Special events announced for the upcoming Gero-Ed Forum.
Gero-Ed Center Updates
New Funding Opportunities for MSW Programs in Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Health
The new MAC Project promotes gero infusion for MSW specializations in health, mental health and substance abuse.
GeroRich Monograph Online
The recently released GeroRich Monograph is now available on the Gero-Ed Center Web site.
Gerontology Content Increasingly Found in Self-Study Documents
The results of a new CSWE study show an increase in gerontological content in BSW & MSW self-studies.
Diversity and Aging: New Perspectives on Cultural Competence
By Molly Everett Davis
A social work student recently asked me a question in response to a classroom discussion on cultural competence. “Are you telling me that social workers are expected to be culturally competent with clients regardless of their ethnicity, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, spirituality or socioeconomic status? Is that possible?”
Social workers are facing new challenges in our understanding of and in effectively intervening with the diverse populations we serve. We are expected to be culturally-competent, but what does that mean and what does it require? As someone committed to working effectively with older adults, I believe it requires us to develop new perspectives on diversity that include understanding the centrality of age in shaping values, beliefs, norms, behavioral patterns and lifeways. We need new conceptual models that cut across multiple categories of diversity and help us understand how diversity impacts people throughout their life course trajectory and across generations. This is the requirement of cultural competence in the 21st century.
The lifeways framework (Davis, 2003) is one such model that has potential to help understand individual difference that cuts across multiple forms of diversity. It challenges the notion of stereotypes and promotes the need for understanding rather than judgment. It is based upon the ecological processes of person and environment transactions that produce adaptive responses. These responses can be called lifeways. Lifeways are reflected in values, traditions, rituals, behaviors and customs that can be unique to the individual or may be in common with others. In fact, culture really represents the lifeways of an individual or group.
I recently spent some time with my mother during the holidays and faced a lifeways challenge. My mother, who was raised during the Depression, is extremely frugal and consistently demands that we eat all of our food at each meal. Any leftovers are to be consumed at the next meal. Since my immediate family, including teen sons, has had different lifeways and hate leftovers, you can imagine the clash of lifeways. This recent experience demonstrates the uniqueness of lifeways and the role of age, socio-economic, gender, ethnicity and historical context in shaping them. If a social work professional were called upon to understand my mother’s concerns about food, it would be necessary to understand the context of the development of her lifeways. She might share commonalities with others raised during the Depression,such as frugality and distrust of banks, but she might also have some unique lifeways, such as cooking small portions to ensure not wasting food, figuring out ways to reuse “disposable” plates and baggies or putting so much emphasis on saving money that she denies herself comfort items.
Approaches to diversity that help us appreciate individual differences as well as commonalities that exist among each of us provide the key to real cultural competence. Meeting this challenge requires an openness toward a process of lifelong learning that sees each encounter with a client as a new opportunity to learn about their lifeways and to provide the best and most appropriate intervention for effective service delivery. This is the challenge of real cultural competence as we work with diverse aging populations.
Davis, M. (2003). Module on Cultural Competence, developed for SAGE- SW Faculty Development Institute, Council on Social Work Education and John A. Hartford Project.
Dr. Molly Davis is an Associate Professor at George Mason University, where she is the Director of BSW Field Education. She also has served as a Gero-Ed Center Expert Trainer and a GeroRich Project Director.
CSWE Now Accepting Proposals for the Gero-Ed Track!
The Gero-Ed Center is proud to announce the new Gero-Ed Track at the CSWE Annual Program Meeting (APM)! The Track, which is consistent with the new format of APM, will debut at the CSWE 53rd APM in San Francisco from October 27-30, 2007. The Gero-Ed Track replaces the previous NGSWC/Gero-Ed Forum. The Gero-Ed Center will oversee the Track and will continue to sponsor its most popular gerontology events from past APMs. We consider the institutionalization of gerontology into the APM as a victory for gerontological social work education!
The Gero-Ed Track invites abstracts on issues related to aging and intergenerational social work research, policy, education and practice, which have implications for faculty, students, field supervisors, and/or practitioners in the United States and throughout the world and across a range of practice and educational settings.
Please review the Call for Proposals before submiting your gerontology-related proposal on the Online Submission site.
Announcing the 2nd Annual Anita Rosen Gerontology Awards for Outstanding Student Poster
BSW, MSW and social work PhD students are strongly encouraged to submit a poster presentation to the Fall 2007 CSWE Annual Program Meeting (APM) to be considered for a Rosen Award. In submitting the gerontology-related poster proposal, students must select the “poster” format and “Gero-Ed” track in order to qualify for this award. Posters will be judged on-site and one student poster will be selected from each level (BSW, MSW and PhD) to win a cash prize of $1,000 each!
The Call for Proposals closes on April 27, 2007. Please review the CSWE APM Call for Proposals and the Rosen Award Guidelines before submitting your proposal on our Online Submission site.
This award is made possible by a generous personal donation from Dr. Anita Rosen who has dedicated her career to advocating for social work students interested in gerontology and to the advancement of the field of gerontological social work education.
Highlights of the upcoming Gero-Ed Forum!
We are putting the final touches on the February 2-4, 2007 Gero-Ed Forum in Charleston! Registration is now full. For more information visit our Web site: www.Gero-EdCenter.org.
We are happy to highlight several events:
- Keynote address by Kathy “GIDGET” Kohner Zuckerman, the little surfer girl with big ideas is now an inspiring nationally-regarded speaker who resumed surfing as an older adult. Book signing to follow the ceremony.
- Learn the latest directions in social work education related to competency-based education, presented byPhyllis Black, Chair of the CSWE Commission on Curriculum and Educational Innovation, and JoAnn Damron Rodriguez, one of the authors of the current gero social work competencies.
- Showcase Event and Reception – Over 50 peer reviewed abstracts will showcase the best practices in gero infusion from across the country. The Showcase will include a sponsored reception. A free gift will be given to the first 100 participants who visit the Gero-Ed Center table during this event!
- Stump the Funder – Four funders, representing national, regional and local foundations, will answer participants’ questions about funding and grantwriting.
Although registration is full, you can still join the gero movement by taking the CSWE Gero-Ed Center’s first eLearning course A Planned Change Model. This eLearning course concisely and practically guides you through our infusion and sustainability models.
New Funding Opportunities for MSW Programs in Mental Health, Substance Abuse and Health
The John A. Hartford Foundation recently awarded a $1,500,000 four-year grant, beginning January 1, 2007, to the CSWE Gero-Ed Center to fund the Increasing Gerontological Competencies in MSW Advanced Curriculum Areas Project (MAC Project). In collaboration with Gero-Ed Center leadership and staff, this project is led by Project Principal Investigator Dr. Sadhna Diwan from San Jose State University.
The MAC Project promotes the gerontological preparation of MSW students who are specializing in health, mental health and substance abuse, since practitioners in those settings often work with older adults. The project will produce and disseminate reviews of existing evidence-based literature relevant to aging in each of these specialized content areas. It will also provide grants for up to 20 MSW programs to develop gerontological infusion methods for their classroom and field courses on health, mental health and substance abuse.
The RFP will be released in the coming months (please watch your email and check the Center’s Web site - www.Gero-EdCenter.org), and an informational session will be held at the Gero-Ed Forum in Charleston, SC. The project is also seeking existing evidenced-based literature and resources relevant to the aging population in the three practice areas. Please contact Dr. Diwan if you have materials to share: sdiwan@sjsu.edu.
GeroRich Monograph Is Now Online
The CSWE GeroRich Monograph, Achieving Curricular and Organizational Change: Impact of the CSWE Geriatric Enrichment in Social Work Education Project, was recently released and is now available on the CSWE Gero-Ed Center Web site (www.Gero-EdCenter.org). Synthesizing data gathered from the former CSWE Geriatric Enrichment in Social Work Education (GeroRich) Project (2001-06), this monograph incorporates strategies, lessons learned, and teaching resources that can facilitate and sustain ongoing curricular and organizational changes to prepare gerontologically-competent social workers. It is a useful resource for anyone committed to “gerontologizing” their social work programs.
Gerontology Content Increasingly Found in Self-Study Documents
CSWE Senior Scholar Dr. John Rife of the University of North Carolina, Greensboro recently completed an extensive review, with permission, of accreditation self-study documents from 45 social work programs. The primary purpose of this review, the first of its kind at CSWE, was to document the frequency of gerontology-related content in social work curricula.
Using qualitative analysis software, it was found that the majority of gerontology content was infused in the self-study sections on HBSE, diversity, social-economic justice and vulnerable populations, and policy. Overall, the number of gerontology-related key words increased over time, and programs involved in the GeroRich or Gero-Ed Center CDI programs showed a greater amount of gerontology content in their curricula than programs that had not participated in any Hartford curriculum development initiatives. Finally, programs had the most gerontology content if they articulated specific program goals or objectives for gerontology education.
The executive summary of this study, which provides a baseline snapshot of the frequency and context of recent gerontology infusion, is available on the CSWE Gero-Ed Center Web site: www.Gero-EdCenter.org.