Careers in Aging Week was April 3-9th 2016 this year! To celebrate, the UAH learning community members held a poster session on March 31st, and the Graduate Certificate in Gerontology Coordinator,  Dr. Elizabeth Chapleski (UAH member) hosted a Gerontology certificate reception on Thursday, April 7th.
 
Learning community members created posters and gave presentations on any topic within aging of their choice during the last learning community meeting of the year. To view all student posters, please visit the learning community poster page here! After presentations, the meeting concluded with discussing the 12 Grand Challenges for Social Work put forth by the American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare. Learning community members discussed how aging fits within each challenge and how we can work towards eliminating these challenges as gerontological social workers. Please click here to learn more about the 12 Grand Challenges.
 
The Gerontology certificate reception was held at the new School of Social Work building, located at 5447 Woodward Ave, Detroit. This reception honored current students in the certificate program, recent graduates, and former certificate holders. Attendees had the opportunity to meet with peers, colleagues, faculty and staff. After a greeting from Dean Waites, and a look at the history of the Certificate, Dr. Faith Hopp gave a talk on careers in aging, the future of social workers within gerontology, and the opportunity to learn about careers in aging resources as well. The reception ended with a huge congratulation to the first graduate of the dual-title Social Work Gerontology PhD program at Wayne State, Dr. Chrissy Marsack! The School of Social Work is extremely proud of her achievements! 

Written by: Dennis Archambault
                      Director, Public Relations, Authority Health 

The health system is undergoing a seismic shift, from a sick care model to a wellness model. Wellness begins, of course, with a healthy birth and infancy, and social conditions that promote optimal health. For disenfranchised populations, subject to negative social determinants, well-being may be lost early on. The opportunity, however, is to redefine wellness in terms of restoring psychosocial balance, management and improvement in the disease condition, and minimizing reliance on expensive health care resources.
 
Chronic illness -- diabetes, hypertension, lung diseases -- plague society, contributing to emergency hospitalization and disability. These are often complex illnesses, compromised among vulnerable populations by social determinants, such as substandard housing, lack of adequate transportation, unemployment, unsafe communities, low literacy level, exposure to chronic stress, and living in a toxic natural environment. These determinants impact the individual's ability to achieve optimum wellness.
 
Multidisciplinary case management has long been used to provide optimum medical and psychosocial care for people with complex ailments. Medical social workers often play a significant role working with the individual, as well as garnering resources required to help people manage their disease. Increasingly, health providers are realizing that care for people with chronic illness is best provided as close to the home as possible, often within supportive environments such as wellness centers.
 
Wellness centers are non-clinical environments linked to primary care providers, which are lower cost and accessible to clients on a regular basis. Among vulnerable communities, such as older adults, ethnic minorities, and low income populations, wellness centers function like community centers that promote psychosocial well-being, while addressing chronic disease. Perhaps the most essential component is case management and the individual's commitment to achieve improvement.
 
This is where social workers are uniquely prepared. Managing chronic disease requires a thorough understanding of the disease process; however, with people who are unable to manage their disease there are often several complicating factors -- including an individual's response to the disease -- in which a social worker can demonstrate an influential role.
 
Sometimes this role is referred to as a health coach. Similar to the quasi-therapeutic role of "life coach" that often help people redirect their lives through strategic intervention, the health coach helps people attain health literacy, skills, tools, and confidence to become active participants in their care so they can better manage their disease. "Social workers are well-equipped for this role as they receive significant exposure to coaching principles during their training and often apply them in their work to promote patient behavior change," according to Bennett, Coleman, Parry, Bodenheimer, and Chen (2010, p.1).
 
Grace Christ, DSW, and Sadhna Diwan, PhD (2009) note that "managing chronic illness presents a profound challenge to the social work profession, not only because of the myriad formal and informal services required..." (Christ & Diwan, 2009, p. 1). Their article focuses on chronic illness in elders, but the principals likely apply to younger populations as well. They identify three main characteristics of chronic illness to be considered by social workers:
 
1. The illness process has changed from an acute terminal course to longer chronic periods.
2. Longer periods of chronic illness has been shown through research to be highly stressful for both patients and their families.
3. More therapeutic strategies will need to be provided in the home and alternative care settings for fiscal and humanistic reasons, with greater reliance on family members for support.

Social workers are well-prepared to assume these complex roles for people with chronic illness. Social workers are poised to play a pivotal role collaborating with medical providers, health education resources, and human services to support individuals with chronic illness move to an increased level of wellness (Hopp, Camp & Perry, 2015).
 
 
 
References
 
Bennett,  H.D., Coleman E.A., Parry, C., Bodenheimer, T. & Chen E.H. (2010). Health coaching for patients with chronic illness. Family Practice Management. 17(5), 24-29.
 
Christ, G., & Diwan, S. (2009). The role of social work in managing chronic illness care. Alexandria, VA: Gero Ed Center, Council on Social Work Education. Retrieved from: http://www.cswe.org/CentersInitiatives/CurriculumResources/MAC/Reviews/Health/22419/22454.aspx
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Hopp, F.P., Camp, J.K., & Perry, T.  (2015). Addressing heart failure challenges through illness-informed social work. Health & Social Work, 40(3), 201-208. 

Welcome to the Urban Aging and Health Affinity Group website! We hope that you find the information on our website useful and that you consider collaborating with us on community-based research projects and educational initiatives. We plan to regularly provide information on this blog on pivotal and timely issues relevant for urban aging and social work. For this first blog, I would like to give a bit of background on the rationale for establishing our group. 

Our group was formed to address the challenges faced by older adults in Detroit, Michigan area. Facing these challenges is critical, given the high rates of mortality for chronic disease conditions such as hypertension, arthritis, diabetes, cerebrovascular disease, and congestive heart failure, and the high rate of hospitalization faced by this population in metropolitan Detroit. For example, a report compiled by the Detroit Area Agency on Aging (2003) concluded that Detroit area seniors are dying from preventable illnesses, and that improved access to high-quality and cost-effective services is needed to address these challenges. The implementation of the Affordable Care Act provides new opportunities for social workers to address these concerns by lending their considerable expertise to health care teams tasked with preventing disease, reducing health disparities, and cutting health care costs (Pace, 2013). However, social workers need further training in the health-related needs, and opportunities facing older adults.

As a school of social work situated in a diverse urban area that has experienced sustained and profound economic challenges, we confront an urgent need to address barriers to geriatric care through geriatric social work expertise. To address this need, we began the Gerontology Affinity Group in 2013 as a means of enhancing aging/gerontology research, education, training and community engagement within the Wayne State University School of Social Work and to position the school for interdisciplinary collaboration.

We welcome your participation. Feel free to contact Vanessa Rorai, project coordinator at vanessa.rorai@wayne.edu, if you wish to contact us about this important initiative. 


Faith Hopp
Cassandra Bowers
Fay Martin Keys
Anwar Najor-Durack
Tam Perry
Cheryl Waites