Summary of the attached article

¶ … Sisco, Volland, and Gorin (2005) discuss the challenge the United States is likely to face in the near future because of the aging population increase alongside the shrinkage of social workers who are capable of caring for older people. Social workers, the authors argue, need to address this problem by learning from the experiences of a few organizations which have been active in this activity. They note that social workers need to carry out broad fund-raising activities, engage the government and the public, and promote educational and training programs to increase the number of social workers who can address the needs of the aging population in the future.

Sisco, Volland, and Gorin (2005) start the article by discussing A Blueprint for the New Millennium, prepared with the support of the Hartford Foundation and the Council on Social Work Education's Strengthening Aging and Gerontology Education for Social Work and aimed at "strengthening the impact of social work to improve the quality of life for older adults and their families" (p. 344). The study uses the term "demographic imperative" to refer to the combined effects of the aging population, longevity of life expectancy due to technological developments as well as high living standards, the median age of the current population, and the simultaneous shortage of social workers who are active in helping older adults across the country.

The authors further note that, while there is a great need for the development of programs for social workers who work with older adults, there remain serious challenges. Many social workers are of older ages and they will therefore be out of the workforce in the near future. And many others, who are of younger age, intend to leave the workforce within the next ten years. There is a greater need to bring younger population into the field. Nevertheless, schools of social work are not promising as they stand now. According to the CSWE/SAGE-SW report, gerontological content in the schools of social work "have limited resources and capability to strengthen gerontology education, and limited incentive to improve the situation" (Sisco, Volland, & Gorin, p. 344). Students often hold ageist and stereotypical views on older adults, while the faculty members are often incompetent because they do not have much background in aging.