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There is a pressing need to upgrade the gerontological knowledge and skills of practicing social workers. Geriatrics and gerontology, as specialized fields of knowledge, have not been sufficiently integrated into formal academic training programs. There are major trends in the health care environment which impact on social work education, including technological advances, a shift from inpatient to outpatient and community care settings, increasing diversity of the older population, and client and family participation in decisionmaking. These trends necessitate social work education to emphasize new content areas in gerontology and the development of new skills in clinical, case management, care coordination, and teamwork. A significant obstacle to the preparation of future social workers to deliver the complex services needed by older adults and their families is a serious shortage of social work faculty in gerontology. Sustained and broad initiatives, such as the John A. Hartford Foundation funded Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholars Program, are needed to develop academic and practice-based faculty in gerontology. This is crucial if social work is to maintain an important service role in the new millennium. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of the study was to compare two coaching channels-a combination of telephone and face-to-face coaching (combined phone and face-to-face) versus telephone coaching only (phone)-on exercise performances in a home-based low-intensity program. Multiple regression models were used to examine if the two coaching channels were associated with different 3-month posttest exercise performances. Individuals with the combined phone and face-to-face coaches had better exercise performances at 3-month posttest, compared to those who received phone coaching only. The evaluation suggests that, in a home-based, low-intensity training program that has been demonstrated to benefit high-risk, ethnically diverse older adults, face-to-face coaching appears to be a more powerful motivator than a phone-based approach only. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Healthy Moves for Aging Well program piloted a home-based, low-intensity strength exercise program that targeted a nursing home certifiable, ethnically diverse sample of community-residing adults aged 65 and older. This study examined the effectiveness of the Healthy Moves program in reducing participants' number of falls, fear of falling, depression, and pain. Results indicated that participants (n = 338) had statistically significant declines in the number of falls and level of pain. These declines were found among participants who improved their exercise performance. This pilot suggests that a modest intervention that couples behavior change with seated exercise can have a positive outcome on a sample of older adults who have high levels of functional impairment and lack a regular exercise regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the increasing demand for, and shortage of, well‐prepared geriatric social workers, there is currently no replicable geriatric social work field training model. The Geriatric Social Work Education Consortium (GSWEC) was developed as the United States' first regional consortium in geriatric social work field training geared to preparing leaders in the field of aging. GSWEC unites four graduate social work programs, five aging service organizations as Centers of Excellence, and 12 associate agencies in order to integrate graduate academic and field curriculum in geriatric social work, based on the continuum of geriatric care. The methodology involves a Systematic Research Synthesis to identify features of successful educational consortia. Bailey and McNally Koney's Community‐Based Consortia Development (CBCD) framework was selected to describe the features of GSWEC. The CBCD model is described and the literature is synthesized by the seven CBCD components: leadership; membership; environmental linkages; purpose; strategy; structure; and systems. The GSWEC model is presented by the CBCD framework as an innovative and replicable model for geriatric social work field education. Lessons learned highlight the importance of strong leadership, careful selection of partners, geographic equity, interpersonal relationships, phased development, and having a clear administrative structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an overview of the topics and issues explored in the volume 24, 2005 issue of "Home Health Care Services Quarterly." Objective of the formation of Partners in Care Foundation; Ways to reduce medication errors on the home health care arena; Dilemma with the healthcare system being faced by the older home health population.

Objective: Despite the escalating demand for geriatric social work services to meet the comprehensive needs of a growing number of older persons and their families, no commonly accepted, gerontological knowledge-based skills-or competencies-have been identified for social workers to possess to effectively serve older clients. This inquiry examined the responses of consumers and providers of geriatric social work concerning geriatric social work competencies. Method: A needs assessment was conducted with four focus groups (N = 33) comprised of older adults and caregivers (consumers), as well as employers in the field of aging and recent social work graduates currently working with older people (providers). A content analysis of field notes and transcripts from audio recordings was used to identify common domains and significant feedback. Findings: Consumers identified resource finding as the most important social worker competency. Providers most frequently cited the ability to conduct geriatric assessments and case management, and the capacity for self-awareness as important competencies. Many consumers did not understand the role of social workers. implications: The results support the need for integrating academic and field curricula to address the lack of commonly accepted geriatric social work competencies, and the need to strengthen public education about the professional role of social work in the field of aging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents several abstracts of research on specimen mineralogy that were presented at the 30th Rochester Mineralogical Symposium. "Mineralogy of the Kimberlites From New York State," by M. Lupulescu; "Mineralogy of the Hiddenite and Emerald Vein Assemblage, Hiddenite, North Carolina," M. A. Wise, A. J. Anderson and R. L. Isaac; "Diopside From the Atwater Quarry Area, Westfield, Massachusetts," by W. Shelton, G. W. Robinson, D. Burgess and D. Levine.

Three theories currently compete to explain the conceptual deficits that result from brain damage: sensory-functional theory, domain-specific theory, and conceptual structure theory. We argue that all three theories capture important aspects of conceptual deficits, and offer different insights into their origins. Conceptual topography theory (CTT) integrates these insights, beginning with A. R. Damasio's (1989) convergence zone theory and elaborating it with the similarity-in-topography (SIT) principle. According to CTT, feature maps in sensory-motor systems represent the features of a category's exemplars. A hierarchical system of convergence zones then conjoins these features to form both property and category representations. According to the SIT principle, the proximity of two conjunctive neurons in a convergence zone increases with the similarity of the features they conjoin. As a result, conjunctive neurons become topographically organised into local regions that represent properties and categories. Depending on the level and location of a lesion in this system, a wide variety of deficits is possible. Consistent with the literature, these deficits range from the loss of a single category to the loss of multiple categories that share sensory-motor properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the need for improvement in the gerontological skills of practicing social workers in the United States. The demographic projections of increasing absolute numbers and proportions of older persons, who will be living longer with chronic illnesses and complex social and health care needs have pressed the need to upgrade the gerontological knowledge and skills of practicing social workers. Geriatrics and gerontology, as specialized fields of knowledge, have not been sufficiently integrated into formal academic training programs. There are major trends in the health care environment which impact on social work education, including technological advances, a shift from inpatient to outpatient and community care settings, increasing diversity of the older population, and client and family participation in decision making. These trends necessitate social work education to emphasize new content areas in gerontology and the development of new skills in clinical, case management, care coordination, and teamwork. A significant obstacle to the preparation of future social workers to deliver the complex services needed by older adults and their families is a serious shortage of social work faculty in gerontology. Sustained and broad initiatives, such as the John A. Hartford Foundation funded Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholars Program, are needed to develop academic and practice-based faculty in gerontology. This is crucial if social work is to maintain an important service role in the new millennium.

Evaluates the Visiting Nurse Association Foundation Transprofessional Model of terminal home care for HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles, California. Role of social workers in pre-hospice terminal care services; Improvement in patients' quality of life; Use of evaluation date to develop a cost profile of patient care.

Presents an argument about the flaws of predominant risk communication models because of their failure to consider audience and additional contextual issues. Implications in ethics and communication; Separation of risk assessment to frame ethical audience involvement; Research and writing skills necessary for constructing and communicating risk.

Current terminal care services present dying patients and their families with a dichotomy in service delivery and the intent care between curative treatments and palliative treatments. This arbitrary dichotomy reduces patients' quality of life in many cases and robs patients and families of benefiting from the psychosocial aspects of treatment until the last few weeks of life. This article presents a blended model of care, the Transprofessional Model, in which patients receive both curative and palliative service throughout their care process. The blended intent model differs from traditional home care in that services are provided by a care coordination team composed of nurses and social workers; the traditional model of care is often case managed by a single, registered nurse. The combination of the multi-disciplinary approach to care coordination and training in both curative and palliative services in the Transprofessional Model demonstrates that this blended model of care produces a bio-psychosocial focus to terminal care as compared to a primary focus on curative services present in the traditional model of home care. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

With increasing numbers of elderly people, and the escalating costs of health care, screening becomes increasingly important for identifying those older people with social health care needs who appear in their primary care physicians' offices. Many people are not aware of available social services. Families with serious social problems are not finding the help they need. The aim of this study was to develop and refine a questionnaire as a screening tool to identify elderly outpatients in primary care settings who are at high risk for psychological, social or environmental needs. This study identified those ten factors at each site which were most indicative that further intervention was needed. There were consistencies among the coordinators across sites in terms of what factors triggered intervention. Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) and Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs) were more likely to be predictive of the coordinator's intervention than were other factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

No abstract available for this article. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]