title: Bringing the community in: partnerships for aging enrichment.
abstract: Aging enrichment of undergraduate social work curricula ensures that program graduates will be prepared to practice with older adults. This article reports the results of focus group research that was designed to engage social workers from community agencies serving older adults in preparing students to become "aging-savvy" social workers. The workers highlighted the importance of wide-ranging exposure to older adults, the changing needs of older adults, and the importance of increasing students' comfort with self-determination. These findings informed the program's ongoing curricular transformation process through the incorporation of new assignments that enabled increased contact with older adults in a variety of settings.
authors.forename: Joy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Swanson Ernst
authors.forename: Lynda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sowbel
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003479:Curriculum; D003625:Data Collection; D004500:Education, Graduate; D005178:Faculty; D017144:Focus Groups; D005853:Geriatrics / Q000193:education*; D006299:Health Services for the Aged; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D008396:Maryland; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012576:Schools, Health Occupations; D012949:Social Work, Psychiatric / Q000193:education*