Family Caregivers of Older Adults: NASW Standards for Social Work Practice

1. Family Caregivers of Older Adults: NASW Standards for Social Work Practice Amy Berman, RN, BS Chris Herman, MSW, LICSW Jamie Huysman, PsyD, LCSW Nora O’Brien-Suric, PhD

2. Today’s Session • Aging demographic shift • Importance of family caregivers • New standards from NASW • Importance of caring for the Caregiver • Your call to action

4. The Aging Demographic • Happy Birthday, Boomers • Doubling of Older Adults • Skewing Older

5. Need for Family Caregivers • Backbone of health care (IOM) • 42 million caregivers • Contributions exceed $450 million/yr • What happens when unsupported?

6. Professionals Supporting Family Caregivers • Grant to AARP Foundation • Partnership [AoA, NASW, FCA] • Prototype Caregiver Support • Social Work Practice Standards • Increase Consumer Demand • Inform Policymakers

7. Social Work and Family Caregiving • Family systems • Person-in-environment framework • Micro-, mezzo, & macro-level interventions • Strengths perspective

8. Goals of the NASW Standards Project beneficiaries = family caregivers • Enhance social work practice • Educate the public • Advocate for family caregivers

9. Development of the Standards • Gerontological social work competencies • State of the Science symposium (2008) • Social work expert panel • NASW member survey • Public comment period

10. Standards Content (handout) • Introductory material • Twelve standards • Resource list

11. Dissemination of the Standards • November 2010 release • Use of multiple NASW channels • Promotion by partners: • Central role of social work expert panel

12. Putting the Standards into Practice • Presentations, publications, & web • National & international audiences • Students & practitioners • Supervisors & administrators • Other professionals & service providers • Family caregivers • Social work curricula & field placements • Continuing education & employee training • GECs & other organizations

13. Family Caregiver Alliance Webinar Title: NASW Standards for Social Work Practice with Family Caregivers of Older Adults Presenter: Sandra Edmonds Crewe, PhD, ACSW, MSW Date: July 29, 2011 Archived audio recording & slides: www.caregiver.org/caregiver/jsp/content_node.jsp?nodeid=2491

14. Social Work Expert Panel & Other External Advisors Patricia Brownell, PhD, MSW Catherine A. Clancy, PhD, LCSW JoAnn Damron-Rodriguez, PhD, LCSW Sandra Edmonds Crewe, PhD, ACSW, MSW Lorraine Hedtke, LCSW, PhD Forrest Hong, PhD, LCSW, C-ASWCM Jamie Huysman, PsyD, LCSW Phyllis Mensh Brostoff, CISW, ACSW, CMC Nora O’Brien-Suric, PhD, MA Miriam Sterk, LCSW, C-ASWCM Cynthia Stuen, DSW/PhD, ACSW, LCSW Amy Berman, BS, RN Rita Choula, BS Susan Reinhard, PhD, RN, FAAN Tracy R. Whitaker, DSW, ACSW

15. Accessing the Standards • Single copy: www.socialworkers.org/practice • Multiple copies: www.naswpress.org

16. Attention to the contributions, strengths, needs, and goals of family caregivers of older adults is integral to social work practice. –NASW Standards for Social Work Practice with Family Caregivers of Older Adults (2010), p. 17

17. The Standards…“The Times They Are A’ Changing” Our Roles As: Advocates of the Standards Advocates of Older Adults Advocates for Ourselves

18. Honor The Elders Through Sacred Fire Native American wisdom: • Is deep, profound, simple and true. • Focuses on healing wounds, and bringing peace through good feelings, not fear. The standards are our fire

19. What Do the Standards Mean to Us as Professional Caregivers? • Consistency & integrity • Warmth and safety • Awareness--we can no longer be naive!

20. Standards and the Changing Healthcare Environment • Define minimum expectations in practice • Corrective experience for healthcare • Enrich performance and efficacy

21. The Roadmap for Professional Caregivers • Standards provide information for different systems to: • Deliver consistent care • Support quality of care and integrity

22. Feeling the Fire: Integrating Standards into Profession • Monitoring performance not sufficient • Need for sustained improvements • Role of governance

23. Putting the Standards into Practice The $64,000 “Burning” Question: Are implementing the Standards more work in times where we are asked to do much more with much less?

24. Can They Be Successful If We Don’t Keep Our Fire Burning? • ACO’s • Hospital Admissions • Readmissions • Medicare Expenditures • Too Much Work • So much Falling on us

25. Burnout, Compassion Fatigue and the Standards • Boundaries and Mind-Body-Spirit Health • Our personal ship needs to be seaworthy  • Creating own Standards of Self Care

26. Ethical Imperative to Support Our Own “Sacred Fire” • NASW Clinical Standards only part of the Quality of Care Story

27. The Fire That Burns from the Standards • Our ongoing self care • Professional development plans • Seeking out mentoring, tutoring, supervision or training opportunities

28. A Sioux Story

29. Importance of the NASW Standards • Provides guidance for meeting the needs of a growing population • Ensures competent & appropriate care • Raises awareness of the professionalism of social workers

30. The Charge Help caregivers receive the assistance they need and elevate the professionalism of social workers by: • Incorporating these standards into your practice, and • Disseminating the standards to other social workers and agencies providing care to older adults and their caregivers.