Daniel B. Kaplan

Relocation Remembered: Perspectives on Senior Transitions in the Living Environment

The experience of aging may necessitate transitions in living environments, either through adaptations to current residences or through relocations to more supportive environments. For over a half century, the study of these transitions has informed the work of researchers, health and mental health providers, policymakers, and municipal planners. In the 1970s and 80s, knowledge about these transitions advanced through Lawton and Nahemows ecological theory of competence and environmental press, Wisemans behavioral model of relocation decision making, and Litwak and Longinos developmental perspective on senior migrations. This article revisits influential theoretical frameworks that contribute to our understanding of senior transitions in living environments. These seminal works are shown to inform recent studies of relocation and gerontology. This article concludes with a call for a view on housing transitions that reflects the contemporary context.

Dementia care: A global concern and social work challenge

The implications of global aging for professionals in the fields of health and aging cannot be ignored, particularly for those who confront disorders of dementia. This article reviews the care needs of individuals with dementia and their family members, and examines the state of readiness of the social work profession for responding to the needs of these individuals. The authors assess professional social work roles and the size and scope of the supportive evidence base for social work practices in dementia care, and suggest several important areas for research attention.

Aging in Place vs. Relocation for Older Adults with Neurocognitive Disorder: Applications of Wiseman’s Behavioral Model

Some older adults are more vulnerable to housing concerns due to physical and cognitive challenges, including those with a neurocognitive disorder who need extensive support. Environmental gerontology frameworks, including Wiseman’s 1980 Behavioral Model of Elderly Migration, have informed scholarship on aging in place and relocation. Understanding Wiseman’s model, including considerations for working with families confronting a neurocognitive disorder, can help practitioners ensure that older clients live in settings that best meet their wants and needs.

The Transformative Potential of Social Work's Evolving Practice in Dementia Care

Social workers in diverse service systems throughout the United States encounter many opportunities for improving quality of life for people with dementia and their families. Yet practice with this population is unclearly defined and a core set of competencies for such practice does not yet exist. Instead, it is shaped by roles within aging and health systems. These roles are informed by a biomedical disease model of dementia. This article examines social work practice and its connection to evolving views on aging and senility throughout the 20th century. New directions for practice are recommended to improve services for individuals with dementia.

Primary care providers' bereavement care practices: recommendations for research directions

Bereaved patients are often seen in primary care settings. Although most do not require formal support, physicians may be called upon to provide support to some bereaved, particularly those with bereavement‐related mental health disorders like complicated grief and bereavement‐related depression. Research evidence on physician bereavement care is scant. We make recommendations for future research in this area.

Hospice Services for Complicated Grief and Depression: Results from a National Survey

To describe the prevalence of screening for complicated grief (CG) and depression in hospice and access to bereavement therapy and to examine whether screening and access to therapy varied according to hospice organizational characteristics or staff training and involvement.

John A. Hartford Foundation Centers of Excellence Program: History, Impact, and Legacy

The John A. Hartford Foundation (JAHF) created the Centers of Excellence in Geriatric Medicine and Geriatric Psychiatry in 1988 with the goal of establishing academic training environments to increase geriatrics‐trained faculty. The initiative identified medical schools with the necessary components for training academic geriatricians. JAHF grants provided the resources to create a cadre of physicians whose research, teaching and practice leads to substantial contributions in geriatrics. Results from two evaluations show that the program has successfully increased geriatrics‐prepared faculty who have achieved promotion and institutional retention, success in winning competitive research grants, and positions of leadership. The initiative strengthened the national network of geriatrics programs and served as a major driver of increased prestige for the fields of geriatric medicine and psychiatry.

Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work (AGESW): Key Initiatives and Directions

AGESW was founded in 1981 by a small group of individuals who were deeply concerned about the Council on Social Work Education’s (CSWE) lack of attention to aging. Originally called the National Committee for Gerontology in Social Work Education (NCGSWE) (name changed in 1995), AGESW has been a central to keeping the issues of older adults on the radar of social work educators and scholars in the United States. AGESW works collaboratively with the Gerontology Society of America (GSA), CSWE, and the social work Baccalaureate Program Directors Association to support educators and social workers at all stages of their careers to have access to mentoring, access to professional development opportunities, and a venue to publish research that aims to ensure that older adults and families experience the highest quality health and well-being possible. Since its inception, AGESW has grown into a complex national organization in the United States that draws in scholars at various stages of their professional development. AGESW has grown from 10-20 scholars at its inception to over 175 current members, including those from outside the United States. Current activities of AGESW include preparing social work doctoral students with an interest in gerontology for a career in academia, providing education about older adults and aging to social work faculty members without aging expertise, recognizing the accomplishments and leadership scholars and faculty members in the field of gerontological social work, and producing the Journal of Gerontological Social Work, the official journal of AGESW and a publication of the Taylor & Francis Group. These are highlighted below are greater detail.

Associations Between Recent Bereavement and Psychological and Financial Burden in Homebound Older Adults

Introduction Bereavement is common in older adults, but it remains unknown whether bereavement contributes to poor outcomes in the vulnerable population of older adults receiving home-based services. We examine whether recent bereavement was associated with worse physical or mental health, presence of abuse or neglect, and financial strain. Research Design Cross-sectional analyses of an assessment of functional and social vulnerabilities collected by the New York City Department for the Aging (DFTA), the largest Area Agency on Aging in New York. Assessments were completed on 5,576 New York City Department for the Aging long-term care program, recipients aged ≥60 who received services in 2012. Assessment also collected data on partner or child death in the last year. Results Logistic regression indicated that the recently bereaved were more likely than the nonbereaved to report both depression symptoms and financial strain. Conclusion Enhanced efforts to identify and address mental health and financial concerns in bereaved homebound older adults may be warranted.

SKRAPPLE: enabling media-based study schools, apprentice schools, and samba schools

SKRAPPLE stands for sharing knowledge representational artifacts in a peer-to-peer learning environment. SKRAPPLE combines a Squeak-based, media authoring and programming environment, an implementation of the symbols and worlds cognitive architecture, and a pedagogical method based on peer-mentoring. SKRAPPLE is meant to serve as a model for a new kind of school, both formal and informal, that would function as an open-source/open-content, public service media enterprise. In this model of school, children would be responsible for all authoring/production activities and these activities would allow and enable children to passionately immerse themselves in any content area, both intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary. The authors propose an initial specification and invite collaborators to develop, research, and implement the SKRAPPLE model.