This page is a guide to School of Social Work courses, faculty, and other resources that will prepare you for clinical practice with older adults and their families. You can tailor your studies to focus on elders with classes on Aging and Multigeneration Practice. Join the "Gero-group" listserv to receive notices for gerontology social work related events.

Click Here for a sample schedule of an Innovations in Aging Lunchtime Series.

By 2030, there will be more people over age 60 than children under 10. Globally there is tremendous growth in numbers of older adults living into their 90s. The growth in older adults means a diverse array of career opportunities as resources are mobilized to support them and their families. Join a vibrant learning community of people interested in working with older adults and their families utilizing a multigenerational lens.

The multigenerational framework that is distinctive to the UW is aimed at strengthening reciprocity and resilience across generations. Since aging affects all types of families, we employ a multigenerational trauma-informed, social justice and equity lens to understand the impact of multiple oppressions in practice such as ageism, ableism, racism, nativism, heterosexism and transphobia. Students will build knowledge and clinical skills to effectively work with and advocate for older adults and families in a range of settings and to address structural and interpersonal ageism. They will learn how to support people facing cross-generational issues of trauma, family violence, and health and economic inequities and how to promote resilience in addressing systemic inequality across the life course.

All clinical students take the following courses center older adults and multigen family practice:

Practice course – students choose one of the following:

514 – Clinical Social Work: Practice with Adults
515 – Clinical Social Work: Practice with Children, Youth, and Families

Policy/Services course – students choose one of the following:

519 - Health/Mental Health Policy/Services
520 - Multigenerational Policy/Services (EDP)
521 - Child and Family Policy and Services (DAY)
526: Social and Healthcare Policy in an Aging Society (DAY schedule, EDP can take if works with their schedule)

571 - Assessment of Mental Disorders

598 - Integrative Seminar – students choose one of the following:

Adult-focused seminar
Children, Youth, and Families-focused seminar
Youth through Adults-focused seminar
Aging/Lifecourse-focused seminar - offered on DAY schedule, open to EDP students if schedule works for them.
Special seminar for students accepted into a fellowship program (Carol LaMare, Latinx Specialization)

Courses that center older adults and multigen family practice (descriptions listed at the end of this page). EDP students are able to take DAY courses on a space-available basis if they are able to take courses during the day on Thursdays and Fridays.

Related electives (descriptions below)

546: Addressing Trauma and Recovery in Multi-Generational Advanced Practice (both EDP and DAY schedules)
556: Family Healing: A Cross-Generational Approach (both EDP and DAY schedules)
596: Psychology of Aging (all students, asynchronous)
596: Social and Cultural Aspects of Aging (all students, asynchronous)
596: Biological Aspects of Aging (all students, asynchronous)

Faculty: Clara Berridge, Karen Fredriksen Goldsen, David La Fazia, Wendy Lustbader, Aida Wells

Clinical Practicum Opportunities

Here are some recent examples of practicum sites where students focused on aging and older adults have been placed. Examples include: Harborview Memory and Brain Wellness Center, Swedish Medical Center, UW HealthyGen Center, Aging with Pride, Chinese Information & Referral Center, Senior Housing Assistance Group (SHAG), Sound Generations, Providence Health System, Sound Mental Health, Multicare Geropsychiatry and Evergreen Hospital, Swedish Cancer Institute, City of Seattle Aging and Disability Services, Veterans Administration, ERA Living, Resident and Family Support Programs, Northwest and Puget Sound Kidney Centers, Kinship Care Program, Senior Centers, and many more.

Career Opportunities

Our graduates have accepted both clinical and macro positions at a wide range of organizations serving older adults and families. Examples include Northwest Hospital, the Alzheimer’s Association, Harborview, Providence Hospice, Evergreen Hospice & Home Health, Aging Wisdom, and various departments within the Veterans Administration, such as Oncology, Mental Health, Community Outreach, Housing, and PTSD Clinic.

Scholarships and Fellowships

The Center for Aging Scholarships: The Center for Aging is an innovation hub that offers student scholarships of $3,000 to $1,000 per quarter. The Center offers culturally focused evidenced based translational research and programming serving diverse elders and creating cross-generational opportunities for wellness of all ages. The Center specializes in serving diverse, resilient, at-risk and intersecting communities, including LGBTQ, racial and ethnic minorities, and veteran elders, those living with HIV, and those experiencing housing and economic instability and their families. Funded students must be registered at the University of Washington and complete their advanced field placement in aging or multigenerational practice. Additionally, they must take specific courses in the program. Interested students may contact the Center at uwaging@uw.edu for the application materials. Deadline is typically May 15th for the following year.

The Hooyman Intergenerational Fellowship: A merit-based scholarship for students committed to working with older adults and their families. Award amounts range from $1000 to $2000, depending on the number of qualified applicants. Funded students must be registered at the University of Washington and complete their advanced field placement where they have opportunities to work with older adults and their families. Additionally, they must take specific courses in the program. Interested students may contact the The Center for Aging at uwaging@uw.edu for the application materials. Deadline is typically May 15th for the following year.

The Carol LaMare Scholars Program in Integrative Oncology and Palliative Care Social Work supports specialized/advanced year MSW students specializing in cancer and end of life social work. On occasion, undergraduate and doctoral students may also receive financial and educational support. Carol LaMare Scholars receive a $5000 stipend during their year of study; intensive mentoring and networking with colleagues in the field; and practicum placements in local cancer centers, hospitals, hospices and palliative care programs. For this program, students must have the following specializations - For DAY, Clinical Social Work. For EDP, Integrative Health/Mental Health.

Veteran’s Administration: Eligible students will receive a $6,300 stipend. Information available during the specialized (advanced) placement process through the SSW Office of Field Education in early winter quarters for funding for the student's advanced/specialized practicum (so for EDP 2 and DAY 1 students.)

NW Leaders in Behavioral Health: Eligible students will receive $10,000 stipend and this traineeship requires enrollment in specific coursework. This information is distributed through canvas announcements in Spring quarter for funding for the student's advanced/specialized practicum (so for EDP 2 and DAY 1 students.)

Join a vibrant learning community.

Here are some popular gatherings that students value:

Innovations in Aging lunchtime series – Twice monthly

The Center for Aging Annual Lecture – join us for an exciting lecture by a leading scholar one evening in October every year

Upcoming:

Elena Portacolone, USCF, The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the lived experience of diverse older adults living alone with cognitive impairment

Past Annual Lectures:

2019: Roi Livne, University of Michigan, “Values at the End of Life: The Logic of Palliative Care”

2018: LaShawnDa Pittman, University of Washington, “When You Say Grandmother You Still Say Mother: Black Grandmothering in the 21st Century”

Course Descriptions

598: Integrative Seminar - Aging and the Lifecourse

This seminar fosters critical thinking about the relationship between theoretical learning in the classroom and practice learning experiences in the field. Its primary purpose is to facilitate your integration of social work knowledge in clinical work with the acquisition of the skills necessary for future practice through a social justice, anti-racism lens.

The seminar is designed to assist students in articulating their core values, knowledge base, and skills as professional social workers. Students will develop a streamlined integrated portfolio that will demonstrate their talents, abilities, and competencies. Specific attention will be devoted to assessing one’s readiness and needs for professional practice and development. Students will gain specific skills in identifying core professional skills and development needs as well as interviewing and negotiating at the workplace.

520: Policy/Services: Multigenerational (EDP)

Investigates how social and economic inequality in America is established, manifested, and maintained. Also examines interventions that purportedly address inequality. Provides analytic tools to help with critical thinking about competing views of inequality and the interventions that address it.

521: Child and Family Policy and Services (DAY)

This policy and services platform course offers an advanced critical overview of policies, regulations, laws, service and institutional contexts, ethical principles, practice issues, and issues related to both structural inequalities and the social work profession's developmental agenda within the domain of child and family social work practice. Building upon foundational courses such as Poverty and Inequality, Diversity, Historical & Intellectual foundation, and Macro practice, this course offers advanced study of the extent, causes, consequences and perpetuation of local, national, and global child and family inequalities. It applies a social justice framework to understanding and analyzing the organization of services and major policy issues relevant to social work practice with children, adolescents, and families.

526: Social and Healthcare Policy in an Aging Society

The dramatic growth of the older population has resulted in a corresponding increase in the number and diversity of multigenerational (three to five generation) families. Social workers in all practice settings and with all age groups increasingly encounter older adults as members of multigenerational families. They also confront structural inequities and health disparities that are exacerbated across the life course for groups that have experienced historical disadvantage. Given these structural inequities and the wide range of practice and organizational settings involving diverse multigenerational families, social workers need the competencies and practice behaviors (knowledge, skills, and values) to analyze, critique, develop, and advocate for policies and programs to support them. Current social, health, and long-term care policies are typically designed as categorical, age-based approaches that may inadvertently foster competition between young and old rather than meet common needs across generations. This course is distinctive for addressing issues of older adults, aging, and service delivery within a multigenerational paradigm rather than an age-based policy context.

546: Addressing Trauma and Recovery in Multi-Generational Advanced Practice

A multigenerational perspective will be used to examine clinical interventions for several kinds of trauma: childhood sexual abuse, battering at any age, having been raised by chemically-dependent parents, elders at the mercy of abusive adult children, and a range of losses throughout the lifespan. State-of-the-art techniques for healing trauma will be explored, along with more traditional therapeutic modalities. Ethical issues will be discussed at length in regard to clients who continue with self-harming behaviors and those who resist treatment. Ways to establish a therapeutic alliance, despite resistance, will be explored. The recovery process will be explicated in terms of family strengths and cultural differences across the generations.

556: Family Healing: A Cross-Generational Approach

Multigenerational families present particular challenges and opportunities for social workers in all practice settings. Understanding how both difficulties and strengths are passed from one generation to another is critical for knowing how to intervene effectively, whether the issue is adolescent rebellion, a couple about to fracture, or an older parent suddenly in need of care. While current service systems tend to focus narrowly on one or two members of a family, this course will explore how to respond to the dynamic within the entire extended family. Cultural differences will be emphasized, as well as issues pertaining to the impact of chemical dependency, mental illness, and disability across generations.

596: Biological Aspects of Aging

Introduction to aspects of the biology of human aging and functional changes associated with normal aging and with illnesses that may be present in the elderly. Explores the relationship between changes in physical function, environment, and quality of life. Includes theoretical perspective on aging as well as the aging process in specific physiological systems. Designed for upper-level undergraduate students with an interest in aging.

596: Social and Cultural Aspects of Aging

Involves faculty members from the various social science fields examining the range and variation of relationships among age-linked attitudes and cultural values related to aging; the social and economic factors that influence the elderly in contemporary society; the effects of ethnic and sex differences in sociocultural aging. Open to upper-division undergraduates and beginning graduate students interested in gerontology.

596: Psychology of Aging

Focuses on developing the skills necessary for critically evaluating current psychological theories of aging, research findings in this area, and the implications of findings on the aging person. Special consideration given to the effects of socioeconomic, sex, and ethnic differences in the psychology of aging. Open to upper-division undergraduates and beginning graduate students interested in the field of gerontology.