|
Practicum Partnership Program
High quality practicums connect communities and practitioners
with schools of social work and help schools respond
to evolving local needs. The Practicum Partnership Program
is piloting high-quality models of aging-rich field
experiences at schools of social work and community
agencies across the country.
These practicum models:
 |
 |
Test new approaches
to graduate field experiences, particularly using
enriched rotations and consortia of local agencies. |
|
|
Draw new students into
social work programs related to aging. |
|
|
Serve as a vehicle for
enhancing geriatric field work education. |
The program also provides scholarships for 40 MSW students
participating in aging-rich field experiences and funding
for new educational tools that can help improve these
field experiences at other schools.
Model Programs
The Practicum Partnership Program has helped to launch
six sites around the country that have created unique
program models providing aging-rich field experiences
for MSW students. Each educational model is consistent
with the sites' educational philosophy and objectives
and the identified needs of their respective communities.
While sharing some similar components, each site has
developed a unique model.
Components
of PPP's Aging-Rich Practicum Models
School-Community Partnerships
At the heart of each PPP site is a rich and vibrant
school-community partnership. Schools of social work
(either an individual school or a group of local schools)
work with a consortia of at least five (and as many
as 40) community agencies that serve older adults. Initially,
these school-community groups co-designed their practicum
experiences and now continue to oversee the projects'
growth and development. To date, 16 schools and 130
agencies participate in six PPP consortia.
Experiences along the Continuum of Care
Each PPP program has created innovative educational
opportunities that expose MSW students to older adults
with diverse life histories and experiences, different
types of service providers and prepare them to become
leaders in the field of aging. Through rotations-which
include two or more field sites per academic year and
which vary from site to site-students have the opportunity
to engage in a variety of activities including:
|
|
Counseling older adults
and their families |
|
|
Case management and
care management |
|
|
Program planning, implementation
and evaluation |
|
|
Community organizing |
|
|
Coalition building |
|
|
Research |
|
|
Policy & Advocacy |
Integration with Classroom and Other Learning
These exciting practical experiences are closely linked
to traditional didactic instruction, as well. Each of
the sites includes a seminar for participating students
conducted by faculty, field staff and practitioners
from participating agencies. Most integrate the practicum
experience into a broader curriculum or specialty in
aging or gerontology.
In addition, some sites offer lecture series, workshops
and other special events that enrich students' understanding
of aging and the needs of older adults. These activities
are often open to the entire school of social work,
as well as the broader community, again reinforcing
the program's commitment to this "town-gown" cooperation,
communications and partnership.
Back to top
Success to
Date
Since the PPP's inception, 166 students have completed
Practicum Partnership programs, and 134 students are
currently enrolled in the PPP-sponsored aging-rich field
experiences. 18 more students will finish in December
2002. By the end of the first three years of our work,
we project that approximately 300 students will have
graduated from our programs. The result: a significant
and growing cohort of students, educators, field instructors
and agencies prepared to improve community-based and
other services to older adults.
With support from the John A. Hartford Foundation,
the PPP provides funding to each of the six model sites
(see below). In turn, these sites are expected to raise
matching dollars. Since 1999, thanks to their sustained
and committed efforts, they have raised more than $3
million to sustain the growth and development of their
respective programs.
Back to top
Six Model Programs
The Practicum Partnership Program model sites include:
- The Albany Hartford Internships in Aging Project
Consortium- State University of New York at Albany
School of Social Welfare
- In partnership with 9 area agencies serving older
adults, the State University of New York at Albany
School of Welfare has developed a model that includes
two years of field placements in a variety of settings
throughout the continuum of care for older adults.
First-year students take part in a special "Seminar
on Aging" and second-year students choose from ten
courses and an integrative seminar to create a curriculum
in aging. New funding initiatives have enabled Albany
to almost double the amount of stipends offered to
its second-year students. These funds, combined with
successful recruiting efforts have helped Albany expand
its program to provide 16 second-year internships
in 2002-03.
- For more information, click
here.
- Geriatric Social Work Education Consortia (GSWEC)-
Southern California
- This unique model is administered by the Partners
in Care Foundation and includes the University of
California, Los Angeles Department of Social Welfare,
University of Southern California, School Of Social
Work, California State Long Beach, Department Of Social
Work and California State University, Long Angeles,
School Of Social Work As well as 40 partner agencies.
The theme of this ambitious effort is leadership.
In addition to their site rotations, student interns,
all of whom receive stipends, participate in task
rotations that take into account the broader roles
social workers play in their agencies, in team building,
and in interdisciplinary practice. GSWEC has formally
identified all of these and related skills and articulated
them as outcomes, clearly measured as competencies.
The goal: promote innovation and leadership for its
students no matter their professional level.
- For more information, click
here.
- The Geriatric Field Practicum Development Program-
Hunter College School of Social Work/Brookdale Center
on Aging
- In New York City, the Hunter College School of Social
Work and the Brookdale Center on Aging are collaborating
with 9 local agencies serving older adults to provide
dynamic aging-rich field experiences for its second-year
students. The program provides a summer paid internship
at consortium sites for second-year students, provides
scholarships, boasts an Advanced Seminar in Gerontological
Social Work taught by some of the schools' leading
faculty, and includes a high-profile lecture series
on aging issues for Hunter's 300 first-year MSW students.
- For more information, click
here.
- Strengthening Geriatric Social Work- The University
of Michigan School of Social Work
- This Practicum Partnership project, led by the University
of Michigan, involves 20 agencies and churches that
serve older people in Greater Detroit and Washtenaw
County. These sites annually provide fieldwork rotations
for 18 first-and second-year MSW students, who receive
$12,000 stipends. Enriched by an integrative seminar
on aging, these field experiences are designed to
expose students to a continuum of services, multidisciplinary
care, and a range of practice interventions on behalf
of older adults in rural and urban settings and in
direct service and policy environments.
- For more information, click
here.
- The Hartford Bay Area Practicum Consortium- Northern
California
- The University of California, Berkeley, working
with San Francisco State University School of Social
Work and San Jose State University School of Social
Work, anchors this site. They in turn team with five
county departments of adult and aging services in
the Bay Area. The Consortium represents a unique partnership
between academic social work and local government
and hopes to train more and needed social workers
to serve older adults in government-supported programs,
which have been expanded by state legislation in recent
years. Each school of social work anticipates placing
11 MSW students in practicum sites over two years,
for a total of 33 students. This total figure represents
a projected increase of 50% in the number of students
trained in aging at all the schools.
- For more information, click
here.
- Agencies for Gerontology Intercultural Field
Training (AGIFT)- The University of Houston Graduate
School of Social Work
- AGIFT is a school-community partnership between
the University of Houston and 10 community-based agencies
and sites serving older adults. First-year and advanced
standing MSW students (including representatives from
Texas Southern, a historically black university) rotate
among these agencies, which serve multicultural populations.
Second-year students have a special placement in a
geriatric interdisciplinary team training (GITT) internship,
where they learn alongside and along with medical,
nursing and other health professions students. Through
both years, students provide more than 1,100 field
practice hours. Didactic instruction includes a required
field seminar that rotates among the field sites,
as well as a gerontological concentration for advanced
standing and second-year MSW students. During the
first three years of its operation, approximately
40 students will participate in the AGIFT program.
- For more information, click
here.
Back to top
PPP Newsletter
To see an online issue of New Wrinkles, the e-newsletter
of the Practicum Partnership Program, please click
here.
For more information, see the PPP Web site at:
http://socialwork.nyam.org/
Patricia Volland,
MBA, MSW, serves as Principal Investigator for the Practicum
Partnership program.
Back to top
|
|
|
|
