Resource Reviews

For each specialty area, a national workgroup was formed to conduct a review by specialists in the field. The goal of the Resource Reviews is to define an agenda for social work education, practice, and research in aging and mental health, substance use and health.

The reviews contain:

• An examination of the evidence-based knowledge available in each advanced area related to screening, assessment, models of best practice, and empirically-based interventions for working effectively with older persons and their families. The review will address both the quantitative and qualitative literature and its applicability to social work practice with older adults.

• An analysis of current curriculum resources relevant to gerontological social work competencies in each specialty area. These teaching resources include research articles, books, case studies, media, and web-based instruction.

• A synthesis of the available knowledge to provide specific guidelines for social work educators in terms of gerontology-related topics and supporting data for inclusion into the curriculum. These guidelines along with an annotated bibliography of available supporting research and curricular material will allow for the translation of research findings into the advanced curriculum in each specialty area.

We request faculty to send us their current curricular resources for inclusion in this review, which will be disseminated widely to social work educators and researchers.

Workgroup Chairs

Mental Health
Zvi Gellis, University of Albany, SUNY - Chair
Stanley McCracken, University of Chicago - Co-Chair

Substance Use
Kathleen Farkas, Case Western Reserve University - Chair
Laurie Drabble, San Jose State University - Co-Chair

Health
Grace Christ, Columbia University - Chair
Gunnar Almgren, University of Washington - Co-Chair

Full list of Workgroup Members