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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Elaine Jurkowski, PhD1, Patricia M Welch, MSSA2, and E. Ann Gammon, PhD1. (1) School of Social Work, Southern Illinois University, Quigley 4, M/C 4329, Carbondale, IL 62901, (618) 453-2243, etjurkow@siu.edu, (2) George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, 7525 Forsyth Blvd, St. Louis, MO 63105
The past century recognized an increased community census of people with disabilities and people who are over 55 years of age. Shifts in philosophy and technological developments contributed to changes in morbidity and mortality. These changes call for a response from the public health workforce to meet the challenges of diversity. This paper discusses strategies for social work curriculum building, which will begin to address these issues through the use of collaboration with the workforce. A series of focus groups were conducted in a number of rural communities in Southern Illinois to ascertain what issues the workforce within a series of rural communities felt were important to consider when working with older adults or people with disabilities. Findings indicate a relative dearth of content related to advocacy, health care, aging and disability. Findings indicate advocacy and empowerment for people with disabilities will result from trained social work professionals and lead to more equitable morbidity and mortality outcomes for older adults and people with disabilities. Some recommendations for curriculum building to meet workforce needs will be identified.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Curricula, Workforce
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.