STRENGTHENING GERONTOLOGICAL SOCIAL-WORK THROUGH FACULTY-DEVELOPMENT

We describe two related programs designed to address the paucity of ge riatric social work faculty in both the classroom and the field settin g. The first program is a 57-hr certificate program offered by the Hun ter/Mount Sinai Geriatric Education Center. Supported by the Bureau of Health Professions, this program prepares social work registrants to work with the older population and to share their nerv knowledge and s hills with others. The second program, Enhancing Faculty Leadership in a Multicultural Society, is supported by the Administration on Aging. It prepares faculty to train minority students to work with older adu lts. Curricular content is defined, and special features of the progra ms-a mentorship component, campus coordinators, site visits, and works hops on androgogy-are described. Difficulties encountered in program d evelopment are related to recruitment and the need for faculty release time, participants' prior expectations for a structured learning prog ram, faculty participants' initial level of commitment, whether partic ipants' status in their home institutions allows them to implement an educational module, and the political climate within participants' aca demic settings. Suggestions for those developing similar programs incl ude the use of an interdisciplinary format, encouragement of networkin g, development of programmatic links between classroom and practice, a nd the use of mentors.