New Courses

ISP Course: Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias

This interactive, self-paced course provides a comprehensive framework for understanding dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. This course presents an overview of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias by utilizing text, instructional activities, case studies, and video clips. It discusses the role of the social work practitioner in working with older adults with Alzheimer’s disease or other dementias who come from diverse ethnic, cultural, and religious backgrounds. The course also considers legal and ethical issues, social policy, and current research in social work practice with older adults and their families who are dealing with dementia and its consequences.

ISP Course: Working with Informal Caregivers

Working with the Informal Caregivers of older adults is a necessary practice skill for social workers and other social service practitioners. The growing aging population as well as a continued need for informal caregivers for those older adults with chronic illness or limited mobility is an increasing phenomenon in our society. These informal caregivers can include friends and neighbors, but they are most commonly immediate and extended family members.

Social workers and other social service practitioners encounter informal caregivers from a wide variety of socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic groups as well as differing service arenas. It is essential that practitioners learn to adapt their knowledge of supportive services, resource development, and case management to working with informal caregivers. This course provides an overview of the knowledge, skills, and resources necessary for practitioners who work with older adults and their caregivers.

P&G Course: Ageism in the New Millennium

This article-based course discusses the concept of ageism in a variety of contexts including gender, disabilities, healthcare, long-term care, race, and policy. Each article describes the ways in which ageism can be seen as omnipresent, internalized, and systemic in American society. This course also offers strategies for addressing ageism to promote lasting change.

P&G Course: Supportive Housing for an Aging Society

This article-based course provides the history and current information on the state of housing for older adults. Current policies and programs are reviewed, as well as innovative ideas and collaborations. Housing is a complex issue for older adults, especially because their needs are so diverse. This course provides practitioners with knowledge to understand these wide-ranging issues.

A Statewide Training Program to Promote Workforce Development in Aging

This report is a summary of the EOEA-IGSW Online Certificate in Aging Program, a collaboration between the Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA) and the Institute for Geriatric Social Work (IGSW) at Boston University. A total of 269 case managers at 27 aging service access points (ASAPs) across Massachusetts enrolled in the program.The program consists of five courses developed by IGSW, including: Basic Issues in Aging, Geriatric Assessment, Mental Health and Aging Issues, Substance Abuse among Older Adults, and a Guide to the Aging Network. Participants had a year to complete the five course certificate, from July 1, 2006 through June 30, 2007.

Click here to view the brief

IGSW and CalSWEC Training Will Improve Elder Mental Health Services

Through a partnership, the Institute for Geriatric Social Work of Boston University School of Social Work will join with the California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC), a state consortium, to provide training in mental health aspects of aging to social work professionals in three areas of California.

Click here to view press release

Mass. Office of Elder Affairs and IGSW Renew Partnership for Crucial Workforce Training

Efforts to prepare more social workers to care for the burgeoning older population got a boost with the announcement that The Institute for Geriatric Social Work at Boston University School of Social Work and the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs will join forces for a second year of geriatric training for agency staff across the state.  Continuation of the partnership was announced by Scott Miyake Geron, director of IGSW, which provides the training as part of its overall program. EOEA will fund the training, while IGSW provides the training, orientation, technical support, and monthly progress reports. “This collaboration is an example of what can be done when community agencies and academic institutions work together to address crucial workforce needs as we prepare for the aging baby boom,” Geron said.

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Institute for Geriatric Social Work (IGSW) at Boston University to Provide Training to 468 Practitioners Across the State of Massachusetts through the Massachusetts Elder Mental Health Training Collaborative

The Executive Office of Elder Affairs has recently awarded a Mental Health and Aging grant to the Massachusetts Association of Older Americans (MAOA) in collaboration with the Institute for Geriatric Social Work (IGSW) at Boston University School of Social Work.  The grant will fund an innovative program of mental health education and supervision for targeted elder service and mental health staff who provide services to at risk older adults. 

  Click here to view press release