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About HPPAE

The Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education (HPPAE) is a national initiative that recruits and trains the next generation of social workers who specialize in aging by transforming how geriatric education is taught at Masters of Social Work programs nationwide.

This initiative seeks to address the need for 70,000 “aging savvy” professional social workers by 2020. With fewer than 3% of social work students currently specializing in aging, the HPPAE offers a unique training in aging competency and leadership skills. This innovative educational model trains social workers to initiate and maintain improvements in long-term, community-based care for older adults and develops leaders in the field of aging to train future social work professionals.

Goals

The primary goals of the HPPAE are to:

• Train and prepare the next generation of geriatric social workers to meet the growing and evolving demands of America's older population.
• Increase interest in aging as a field of practice among students.
• Increase the ranks of well-qualified geriatric social workers.

Mission

The mission of the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education (HPPAE) is to recruit and train social workers to be leaders in supporting older adults and their caregivers to maintain independence.

Developed and administered by the Social Work Leadership Institute at The New York Academy of Medicine, HPPAE is driven by a unique fieldwork model that rotates students through different agencies so they gain a rich perspective of the full spectrum of aging.

HPPAE is funded with support from the John A. Hartford Foundation and the MetLife Foundation.

Philosophy

The HPPAE program was founded on the belief that the most effective way to train qualified geriatric social workers is to build strong partnerships between academia and the community agencies that serve older adults.

These university-community partnerships ensure that social work education is more inclusive of and responsive to today's older adults, who are transforming our traditional notions of long-term care.

The HPPAE Essential Components are:

1. University-Community Partnerships
2. Competency-Based Education
3. Field Rotations
4. Expanded Role of Field Instructors
5. Targeted Student Recruitment
6. Leadership

Program Successes

HPPAE National Sites List

HPPAE is a nationally recognized training model that has proven to be effective at recruiting students who will go on to pursue careers in the aging field.

• HPPAE has now been implemented in 72 graduate schools and 33 states.
• HPPAE has graduated 2,669 students as of 2011.
• Nearly 80% of HPPAE graduates have gone on to careers in the aging field.
• Among students who had obtained a job prior to graduation, most were employed in care/case-management, long-term care, or hospital settings.

Knowledge and Skill Outcomes

• Students' aging knowledge increased significantly from entrance into the program to graduation.
• Students reported an increase in skill level in the areas of values, assessment, intervention, and aging services.

Student Satisfaction

• Ninety-one percent of students agreed that their personal goals in learning to work with older adults were achieved through their field practicum.
• The majority of students agreed that having experiences in more than one field agency was helpful and that their rotation model enabled them to learn about a range of services for older adults.
• Ninety-four percent of students would recommend the HPPAE.

Program Normalization

The Social Work Leadership Institute (SWLI) is furthering the goal of growing the social work workforce across the country by launching new geographic regions covering a total of 38 Masters in Social Work (MSW) programs as part of the strategy to spread the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education (HPPAE).

In 2009, with the nationwide success of HPPAE implementation in schools of social work, the Social Work Leadership Institute (SWLI) with funds from the MetLife Foundation began a new strategy called “normalization” to encourage all remaining schools of social work to implement the HPPAE model. The normalization strategy depends on a grassroots effort in which current HPPAE schools, acting as ambassadors, outreach to and support schools considering the HPPAE model.

• In February 2009, Region 5 became the first normalization region.
  (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas)
• In December 2009, Region 10 became the second normalization region.
  (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont)
• In January 2011, Region 3 became the third normalized region.
  (Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin)
• In February 2011, Region 6 became the fourth normalized region.
  (Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Washington D.C., West Virginia, and Virginia)

The HPPAE program is currently implemented or planning to be implemented in 108 schools of social work in 37 states, over half of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) accredited Masters of Social Work programs across the country.

National Advisory Board