From left, Nora OBrien-Suric, Carol J. Sheets, and Darla Spence Coffey, at Carol's Retirement Tea.We at the John A. Hartford Foundation value partnerships and especially the people who help establish them. Early in 2010, I met Carol J. Sheets, LICSW, ACSW, national director of social work within the Care Management and Social Work Service in the Office of Patient Care Services at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Together, along with several other key people, we worked to establish a partnership with the VA to adopt the Hartford Partnership Program in Aging Education (HPPAE), a rotational field model used to train master’s level social work students to work with older adults in a variety of settings.
This partnership that Carol helped develop utilizes the training available at the VA's Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Centers (GRECC) for second-year MSW students. The students also receive a stipend from the VA. In addition to providing social work students with geriatric training, the partnership also encourages schools of social work that have not adopted the HPPAE model to do so in order to participate in the stipend program for their students.
The result is that together, the VA and the HPPAE partnership is producing social workers who will be managers and leaders delivering high-quality services to older people.
A total of 11 new VA sites have already adopted HPPAE, with four more scheduled to receive the technical assistance to do so this year. In 2012-13, the first cohort of 10 students graduated after completing their HPPAE internship.
A comparison of tests results for students taken before and after the program shines a light on the difference it makes. The results showed an overall improvement in students’ knowledge of aging and a significant improvement in four competency areas:
- 18 percent improvement in values, ethics, and theoretical perspectives
- 27 percent improvement in assessment
- 20 percent improvement in intervention
- 27 percent improvement in aging services, programs, and policies
This year, 24 students in the program are expected to graduate in the spring, and five additional schools of social work have adopted the HPPAE model in order to participate in the partnership.
Carol was instrumental in establishing this partnership and also contributed to each of the training orientations the first year.
At the end of January, Carol retired after 26 years as a social worker with the VA. Darla Spence Coffey, president of the Council on Social Work Education (which is also a partner in this project) and I stopped by Carol’s Retirement Tea to celebrate her enormous contribution to geriatric social work education and her distinguished service to the VA.
(Watch a video featuring Carol speaking about her career.)
Her work to develop this partnership is changing the way social workers are trained to care for older adults and building a valuable resource in the VA. We truly appreciate these kinds of partnership builders and the change they are able to make.