Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education
Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education?
   
   As the Baby Boom generation hits retirement age, an unprecedented one in five Americans, or 70 million, will be 65 or older within the next three decades.¹
   
   This demographic shift is producing rising demand for professionals trained to work specifically with older adults, many of whom are dealing with major mid-life adjustments, chronic health problems and long-term illnesses. Social workers— who have traditionally helped older adults navigate the often bewildering world of medical treatment and costs, housing and other life needs— are in acute demand.
   
   Yet despite the fact that the U.S. Department of Labor has consistently identified social work as a growth profession, the number of social workers— and of geriatric social workers in particular— is far below the 60,000 to 70,000 workforce experts say is needed to support the growing ranks of the aging.² About 56,000 or 28 percent of social workers are currently focused on caring for older adults.³ Surveys by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) show that the percentage of their members who work in geriatric care has stagnated, holding below five percent in the past two decades. The fact that a full quarter of all graduate social work programs do not offer any courses in aging presents a related challenge.⁴
   
   The Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education (HPPAE) at the New York Academy of Medicine's Social Work Leadership Institute funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation was created to achieve two important goals:
   • Meet the workforce demand for geriatric social workers by training and educating more than 1,000 social workers in older adult care over the next eight years;
   • Establish a specialized aging curriculum for graduate students interested the aging field as the norm in Masters of Social Work programs across the country.


2. How does the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education work?
   
   The HPPAE is designed as a one or two-year program, aimed primarily at second-year students who have elected to specialize in aging. First-year students may also be appropriate, depending on the goals and needs of the host site.
   
   The HPPAE's core structure is made up of five essential components:
   • University-Community Partnership. The partnership is composed of field agencies and universities, who are responsible for designing, implementing, evaluating the HPPAE;
   • Competency-based Education. Created by leading academics and practitioners in the field, the Geriatric Social Work Competencies are included in standards for geriatric care and instruction;
   • Field Rotations give students a richer experience by moving them between two and five different health and social service settings over the course of one year;
   • Expanded Field Instructor Role. Instructors are responsible for coordinating student learning across programs and agencies; and
   • Student Recruitment involves both faculty and field practitioners, as well as HPPAE-enrolled students, graduates, and admissions officers.


3. How is the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education different from traditional social work graduate programs?
   
   The Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education was founded on two principles:
   • Students require a broader exposure to older adult populations and the systems that serve them. Many graduate students in social work choose to specialize in care for older adults when they can gain diverse field experience working with older adults. By giving students exposure to a range of older age groups, as well as the continuum of services offered to older adults, the HPPAE instills students with skills to address quality of care at multiple levels. Immersive HPPAE internships can also help students overcome negative, preconceived notions of working with older adults, and to support them in pursuing rich careers in the aging field.
   • Professional social workers are required to respond to changing community needs more quickly than in academia. While traditional field education programs exclusively follow university educational guidelines, HPPAE university-community partnerships collectively create a curriculum that is grounded in the needs and realities of the local community or region they serve. This presents a chance for students to gain real-world exposure to older adult issues with a strong academic foundation.


4. Why should a university graduate social work program adopt the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education?
   
   An MSW program that is part of the HPPAE will:
   • Position your program as a leader in responding to changing workforce demands;
   • Strengthen your graduate field education programs in aging by updating curriculum based on real-world experiences;
   • Strengthen relations and capacity in local communities and their agencies; and
   • Include your school's faculty and graduates in a national network of professionals in aging expertise


5. Why would a community agency partner with a Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education?
   
   Becoming a HPPAE partner means you can:
   • Benefit from the work of directed and committed graduate school level interns;
   • Build and strengthen relations with local university and college social work programs;
   • Tap into resources earmarked for HPPAE that can benefit the people you serve; and
   • Position yourself as a community innovator in geriatric care to funders and other important audiences


6. Has the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education been evaluated for success?
   
   The HPPAE pilot project, begun in 1999 and supported by the John A. Hartford Foundation, involved six demonstration sites made up of 11 graduate social work programs nationwide. Evaluation of the pilot has shown that by strengthening MSW field education programs, the demonstration sites have produced an increase in students electing to specialize in gerontology.
   
   Of the more than 400 students took part in the first three years of the program, 80 percent went on to pursue careers in the field of aging. Their work settings were primarily hospitals and social service agencies; many focused on mental health, case management and public policy and advocacy. Ninety-eight percent of the students surveyed said their HPPAE experiences were highly relevant and valuable to their current professional work.
   
   Thanks to the success of the initial pilot, the John A. Hartford Foundation has engaged the Social Work Leadership Institute to support an additional 35 sites with the ultimate goal of supporting a total of 60 MSW programs.



7. What kind of support can I expect from the Social Work Leadership Institute at The New York Academy of Medicine?
   
   The staff at the Social Work Leadership Institute has produced a "how to" manual, "Implementing the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education" for current and future HPPAE partners, available for download at www.socialworkleadership.org. The manual includes advice on:
   • How to set up the university-community partnership in your local area;
   • How to recruit students to your HPPAE;
   • How to participate in the national evaluation of the HPPAE model; and
   • How to secure and sustain funding
   Additionally, SWLI staff is available for more hands-on consulting, including training and technical assistance. The Institute has also created a peer mentorship program whereby consultants and veterans of the initial six pilot sites are matched with new sites.

1. Administration on Aging, 2004
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2. National Institute on Aging: Personnel for Health Needs of the Elderly through the Year 2020, 1987
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3. New York Academy of Medicine, Institute of Geriatric Social Work, Policy Bulletin, Winter 2005
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4. Damon-Rodriguez, J., Villa, V., Tseng, H., and Lubben, J. (1997). Demographic and organizational influences on the development of geriatric social work curriculum. Gerentology and Geriatrics Education. 17(3), 3-18.
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