New: Older Adult Panel for Social Work Students

On November 8th, three long-time patient partners, Karen Firus, Don Bindon, and Carolyn Canfield led a panel about older adults and health care for 28 UBC social work students.

The one hour panel was part of a 4th year seminar (SOWK 440Q) on social work in health care. Panelists spoke from personal experience and as caregivers. The panel was highly rated by students, scoring 4.5 out of 5.

“Just like all people, there are a diversity of experiences, personalities, and approaches required for working with older adults and its important not to homogenize their experience and capacities!” said one student.

Course instructor, Dr. Kelly Allison had this to say:

“Having patient partners share their experiences in the healthcare system and with members of our profession (social workers) was meaningful learning for our class. Students shared that the patient partners talked about issues related to their care that they had never considered before. They indicated that the learning they garnered from meeting actual patients and hearing ‘real stories and experiences’ will stay with them for a long time. Meeting the patient partners allowed students to learn about both the vibrancy of life for older adult patients as well as some of the psychosocial challenges in their health. This is definitely an experiential learning opportunity I would like to offer my students again.”