Training Workshop on Social Work Practice with Older Adults Held at NYU Shanghai

NYU-ECNU Institute for Social Development at NYU Shanghai (the Institute) hosted a two-day training workshop on Social Work Practice with Older Adults on October 24-25, 2015.  Dr. Tazuko Shibusawa, Associate Professor at Silver School of Social Work and Collaborating Faculty of the Institute, was invited to provide the training and shared her knowledge and skills in geriatric care. Thirty participants, including medical and social work professionals from hospitals and social service agencies across China attended the workshop.

With the increase in the size of the world population over age 65, public health programs and policies designed to maintain a healthy aging population are more important than ever and are needed on local, national, and global scales. In 2000, close to 90 million adults age 65 and older were living in China, and this number is predicted to increase to over 300 million by 2050, representing 30% of the population. In some Chinese cities such as Shanghai people over age 65 already make up 30% of the population. The number of elders age 80 and older, the oldest-old, is expected to nearly quadruple in China from 12 million in the year 2000 to 40 million by 2030. With this rapid increase in the elderly population, public and private spending for health care in China has surpassed the rate of economic growth. The Institute acknowledges the increasing importance of aging issues and thus launched the first in the series on aging care with the focus on the roles and functions of social work profession in this important field.

Dr. Shibusawa completed post-graduate training in family therapy, psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy, and international trauma studies after receiving her Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. Her clinical experiences include the director of social services at Keiro Nursing Home in Los Angeles, California; psychiatric social worker, Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health, Asian Pacific Counseling & Treatment Center; co-director of Counseling International in Tokyo, Japan; and mental health consultant for the World Health Organization.