Thanks to a recent grant, the University of Iowa (UI) School of Social Work will be leading an initiative to produce 30 web-based seminars (or webinars) for nursing home social workers—the first series of its kind nationally.

There are 16,000 nursing homes in the United States serving more than 3 million people each year.

Production of the webinars is being funded by a $26,000 grant from the Retirement Research Foundation to the UI School of Social Work, part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The webinars, which the school will produce, will provide information about best practices in nursing home social work, including psychosocial and emotional care, dementia care, working with family members, and understanding the impact of the Affordable Care Act on nursing homes.

It will also include training to address 2010 changes to the Minimum Data Set version 3.0 (MDS 3.0), which is a required assessment instrument that collects resident care planning, payment, survey, and quality measurement for Medicare and Medicaid certified nursing homes.

While the live webinars are developed for practicing nursing home social workers, nursing home interdisciplinary staff members and others interested in learning more about these issues are welcome to listen to the recordings of the webinars, which will be posted on-line. Both the live webinars and the recordings can be accessed free from the School of Social Work’s website.

For grant reporting purposes, registration is required. To register, visit clas.uiowa.edu/socialwork/nursing-home-social-work-network and click on the webinars link in the left-hand column.

The project is being led by Mercedes Bern-Klug, associate professor of social work at the UI, and Robert Connolly, a retired social worker with 25 years of long-term policy and consultation experience with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. A planning committee of nursing home social work scholars, and practitioners from around the country and a local committee of nursing home social services directors are assisting with the project.

The two leading nursing home membership organizations in the United States—the American Health Care Association and LeadingAge—are helping to disseminate webinar information to their member nursing homes.

Registration is now open for the first webinar in the series, “The Bridge Model: Social Work and Transitional Care from Nursing Homes, Communities, and Hospitals: A Social Work Approach,” which will be offered from 4 to 5:15 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) Thursday, Aug. 22.

The webinar will feature Debra Markovitz, LCSW, a clinical social worker at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and Ilana Shure, EdM, MSW, LSW, program manager at Aging Resource Center Transitional Care Program in Chicago.

Twice monthly webinars will be created and offered nationally over the next 15 months. Forthcoming webinars include:

• “Psychosocial Documentation: Guidelines and Case Examples to Improve Social Work Risk Management,” from 2 to 3:15 p.m. (EDT) Tuesday, Aug. 27. Paige Hector, LMSW, a clinical educator and consultant with Paige Ahead Healthcare Education & Consulting, LLC, in Tucson, Ariz., and Debbie Lane, MSW, a social worker with Westminster Village CCRC, Weyrich Health Care Center, in Scottsdale, Ariz., will present.
• “Case Management Services to Facilitate Coordination and Continuity of Care and to Assist Residents and Families with Obtaining Necessary Services in the Home or in the Community,” from 2 to 3:15 p.m. (EDT) Tuesday, Sept. 10. C. Byron Cordes, LCSW, C-ASWCM, president/care manager of Sage Care Management and past president of the National Association of Professional Geriatric Care Managers in San Antonio, Texas, and Janis Lasser, LSW, Director of Social Services and Admissions at Emeritus at Lincoln Heights in San Antonio, Texas, will present.
• “The Affordable Care Act and Nursing Homes: Health Care Exchanges, Accountable Care Organizations, Transfers and More,” 4 to 5:15 p.m. (EDT) Thursday, Sept. 26. Victoria M. Rizzo, Ph.D., LCSW-R, interim department· “The Affordable Care Act and Nursing Homes: Health Care Exchanges, Accountable Care Organizations, Transfers and More,” 4 to 5:15 p.m. (EDT) Thursday, Sept. 26. Victoria M. Rizzo, Ph.D., LCSW-R, interim department chair and associate professor with the Department of Social Work, College of Community & Public Affairs, Binghamton University in New York, will present.