Profiles in Social Work

Technology Use with Older Adults

Adrian Kok, Ph.D
Associate Professor - Dominican University

What attracted you to the field of social work?
After a rigorous high school and college education, I wanted to be in a discipline that was people-oriented and had practical applications. When I began my university education, I decided to major in social work and psychology. Social work is a field of many specializations that focuses on enhancing the well being of people and communities. The holistic perspective of how social workers consider multiple aspects of the environment and the self in assessment and intervention attracted me to the field of social work. While I was attracted to the field of clinical psychology because of my undergraduate training, I chose to pursue a PhD in social work because the profession shared many similarities with psychology in enhancing the social functioning of individuals. I also felt able to contribute to the social work profession, which appeared to benefit from having more research-oriented practitioners.

What led you to the field of aging?
The journey to being fully immersed in the field of aging was a long one. As a child, teenager, and young adult, I was very inspired by the two most important women in my life – my mother and grandmother, who were role models for successful aging. Both had difficult early lives but were resilient in their spirit and the manner in which they dealt with challenging but interesting life experiences. I was also fortunate to have worked as a volunteer at nursing homes. While I have worked with autistic children and their caregivers, low income families, and individuals who were at risk of HIV infection, I had not professionally engaged with older adult population as a primary group. However, I felt strongly that later on in my life that I would return to this “calling.” The dean of the Graduate School of Social Work at Dominican University recognized the need to develop the gerontology initiative in 2004. I instinctively said yes to this calling.

How has GSWI benefitted your career?
Without a doubt, GSWI provided a strong focus and a sense of mission for my work as an instructor and researcher. More importantly, GSWI gave me a “professional break” in my career. It began with my involvement with the Curriculum Development Institutes (CDI) in the summer of 2004 when our program hosted the midwestern schools. I was fortunate to have an extremely dedicated mentor, Cheryl Brandsen, who supported my efforts and provided sound and practical advice on infusing gerontology content in the curriculum for three solid years. Participation in the CDI strengthened the gerontology emphasis of the program which led to new collaborative relationships with aging agencies and provided research projects for students and faculty.

Our successful application of the Hartford Partnership Program in Aging Education (HPPAE) grant provided another opportunity to consolidate the gerontology initiative further at the school. We were able to further students’ professional interest in geriatric social work by directing them to our MSW program. This grant also gave me the opportunity to marry the international focus of our program with the HPPAE to develop internships on aging for MSW students abroad. With foundation classes being infused with gerontology and rotation internships in aging being paid, the gerontology emphasis in our program continued to grow. I reached another career milestone when I became a mentor to five programs participating in Cycle 3 of the CDI.

With the structures in place to support the development of a gerontology certificate program at Dominican, we were one of the 16 social work programs in the country to be awarded a grant to implement the Specialized Gerontology Program in 2009. There was professional networking and development, as well as personal and program growth that came with disseminating the research and the implementing the grants from the New York Academy of Medicine and the National Gerontological Center for Social Work Education.

Has it allowed you to do what otherwise would not have been possible?
Absolutely and without a doubt – the curricular innovations, the cross-disciplinary collaboration, new community partnerships, and the newly developed research agenda were fruits of the GSWI involvement. I was also able to work during the summer at Bethesda Home and Retirement Community in Chicago with HPPAE funding. Through the grants, new research projects emerged such as the evaluation of the Kott Scholarship program, and evaluation opportunities with a multi-million dollar BTOP grant. Without the GSWI, my opportunities for personal and professional growth would have been limited.

Another outcome of this involvement was that the emphasis in gerontology became combined with a pet research topic of mine: information technology use by older adults. This perspective opened my eyes to the possibility of collaborating with the computer science department and the Graduate School of Library and Information Sciences at Dominican University, which ultimately led me to the field of community informatics. All these insights might not have come about if not for my involvement with the GSWI.

What are your career goals?
I would like to assist retirement communities, nursing homes, and senior centers in developing a strong infrastructure to encourage lifelong learning and usage of technology by older adults. I would also like to ensure there is sufficient up-to-date technology and training for older adults and their caregivers to be able to use technology to enhance their quality of life. A final goal would be to help social workers realize the relevance of technology and integrating technology seamlessly into their practice.

What advice would you have for students who are interested in the field of aging?
Collect as many experiences as possible in working with older adults in primary and secondary settings before enrolling in a PhD program. Recognize that the field is constantly changing and be prepared to respond to these changes proactively. Be open to working with older adults and you just might never know where it leads you – professionally, personally, and interpersonally. Working with older adults may be challenging but the rewards are bountiful!

- contributed by Meredith Eisenhart, MSW

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Posted on August 18, 2010