The shortage of geriatric social workers has been extensively documented and is the underlying impetus for the CSWE Gero-Ed Center’s curriculum and organizational change programs.
Eldercare Workforce Alliance
CSWE is an active member of the Eldercare Workforce Alliance, which works to ensure an adequate workforce of professionals, direct care workers, and caregivers for our nation’s older adults.
Related Reports
Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce
The ground-breaking 2008 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Retooling for an Aging America: Building the Health Care Workforce, proposes a three-pronged approach to provide older adults and their families with quality healthcare: enhancing geriatric competence, increasing recruitment and retention, and improving care through models that address inefficiencies. The CSWE Gero-Ed Center’s goal to ensure that all social work graduates acquire gero-competencies at the generalist practice level is congruent with the IOM recommendation. A free PDF is available.
Assuring the Sufficiency of a Frontline Workforce: A National Study of Licensed Social Workers Executive Summary
NASW's benchmark 2005 study, Assuring the Sufficiency of a Frontline Workforce: A National Study of Licenced Social Workers Executive Summary, of a licensed sample of NASW members identified that less than 10 percent of social workers were specifically prepared to work with older adults, while at least 70 percent interacted with older adults across a wide range of practice settings.
White House Conference on Aging: Geriatric Health Care Workforce Issues
As part of the 2005 White House Conference on Aging, recommendations were drafted at the Mini-Conference on Geriatric Health Care Workforce Issues (PDF). Dr. JoAnn Damron-Rodriguez presented "Reality Check: Social Work" (PPT) as part of the mini-conference.
The Shortage of Social Workers Caring for Elders and Their Families in Social Work, Aging, and Public Policy
This Policy Bulletin (PDF) from the Institute of Geriatric Social Work and New York Academy of Medicine examines the geriatric workforce and public policy issues related to the provision of care in our rapidly aging society.
Related Web Sites
National Association of Social Workers
This website provides an overview of the social work profession. NASW's Practice Research Network newsletter provides statistics and data on employment characteristics of its members.
Administration on Aging
The AoA website provides access to a range of sources for comprehensive data on trends in aging and the impact of aging on health and social services.
National Association for Home Care and Hospice
The NAHC website provides links to data on the home care industry, trends in utilization, and data on employment of different types of providers.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics
The BLS website contains links to the Occupational Outlook Handbook, occupational employment statistics, employment projections, and labor force statistics.