Nursing Home Social Work Research

This book focuses on the characteristics, roles, and training needs of social service delivery providers in leadership roles in U.S. skilled nursing facilities. The chapters in this volume explore a range of issues salient to nursing home social workers and social work practices such as realistic staffing ratios, qualification levels, dementia training needs, involvement in care transitions and admissions and barriers to psychosocial care. The book also addresses the Social Service Directors’ involvement in and preparation for disaster care planning, suicide risk management, and serious mental illness.

This edited collection will greatly benefit students, academics and researchers in nursing, psychology, health and social work. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Journal of Gerontological Social Work.

Robin Bonifas is Professor and Chair of the Social Work Department at Indiana State University, USA. She has over 15 years’ experience working with older adults in long-term care and inpatient psychiatric settings. She is a John A. Hartford Faculty Scholar and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Gerontological Social Work.

Mercedes Bern-Klug is Professor at the School of Social Work, University of Iowa, USA. She specializes in gerontology, with a focus on long-term services and supports for older persons and persons with disabilities She conducts research on how social workers and other health care providers can support older adults and their family members with the psychosocial implications of with medical decision-making in long-term care settings.