Profiles in Social Work

Identifying Exciting Opportunities for Professional and Personal Growth in Aging

Sadhna Diwan, PhD
Associate Professor -San Jose State Univeresity School of Social Work, Director, Center for Healthy Aging in Multicultural Populations

What attracted you to the field of social work?
I got interested in the field of social work because of its focus on community mental health – it combined my undergraduate majors in psychology and political science. I loved the breadth and depth of the mental health curriculum in my Master’s program, which focused not only on clinical skills, but also on understanding larger systems issues related to organizations, communities, and public policy. Working in community mental health was both enlightening and gratifying in terms of seeing the impact on individuals and families. The doctoral program in social welfare was what equipped me to work on my goal of making a difference at a more systems level on organizations and communities – through practice research, education, and community service.

What attracted you to the field of aging?
Although I saw many seniors in my caseload as a psychiatric social worker, I did not really see them as a distinct group that needed special attention. As is the case for many others, there was very little attention given to aging and mental health in any of my coursework, so aging was not really a special focus for me. It was a job on campus during my doctoral program that really got me interested in aging. As a research assistant on a large longitudinal study of aging in the city of Cleveland I had the opportunity to work with an interdisciplinary team of researchers from medicine and social sciences. One of the most interesting aspects of my job was data collection where I interviewed numerous older adults coming from all walks of life in a variety of living arrangements ranging from independent living to skilled nursing facilities. That formative experience led me to focus my research on formal and informal community-based care, examining how case managers assess and plan for care for poor and frail seniors living in the community, and to understand factors that influence the physical and emotional well-being of older adults.  

How has the GSWI benefited your career?  How has it allowed you to do what otherwise would not have been possible?
My first connection with GSWI was as Project Director of a GeroRich grant to infuse aging in the undergraduate program at Georgia State University. My initial reaction was “we cannot possibly do aging infusion in our program – how would we get the rest of the faculty on board?” Our success in getting faculty enthusiasm and cooperation for infusing aging in the undergraduate curriculum led me to think about infusing aging in the advanced practice areas in social work especially in mental health.

Incredibly, a three page letter to the Hartford Foundation asking to discuss the possibility of funding for increasing aging content in the mental health curriculum morphed into the Master’s Advanced Curriculum (MAC) Project – which gave me the amazing opportunity to be mentored by Nancy Hooyman from whom I learned a great deal about social work curricula and planned change. The MAC Project brought me into contact with a large, diverse, and exceptionally talented group of social work faculty across the country some of whom were gerontologists, whereas others were experts in the specialty practice areas of health, mental health, and substance use. The leadership skills and knowledge gained from leading the MAC Project have been indispensable to my new role as Director of an interdisciplinary Center on Healthy Aging in Multicultural Populations (CHAMP) at San Jose State University (SJSU).

What are your career goals?
Watching my parents’ cohort reach retirement age, I have become very interested in understanding issues related to healthy aging that are unique to older first generation immigrants – for those who have aged in this country as well as those who arrive as older adults, having immigrated later in life. I plan to continue my research on examining the physical and psychological well-being of immigrant elders. I am working on initiatives that bring together my research interests, clinical experience, and leadership skills to work on the diffusion and up-take of evidence-supported programs that help improve or maintain the physical and emotional well-being of elders from diverse communities. There is also much to be done in terms of educating social workers about aging across the various practice areas but also in interdisciplinary training to develop a workforce that is able to effectively attend to the needs of an aging population. Through my work on the MAC Project, the SJSU partnership with the Stanford Geriatric Education Center, and the new CHAMP center, I see enormous opportunities to continue my research, teaching, and work with community-based organizations to make an impact on well-being of seniors.

What advice would you have for students who are interested in aging?
Do what you really enjoy doing and keep yourself open to the numerous possibilities that the field of aging offers for intellectual and emotional growth! Yes, you will put in a lot of time and effort into your ongoing education; your friends may not get what you see is so exciting about working with “those old people”; and your family may never really understand what it is that you do. Nonetheless, if you can see aging as the art of living and dying well, you will find the field of aging to be immensely satisfying both intellectually and emotionally.

- contributed by Meredith Eisenhart, MSW

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Updated January 25, 2011