Empowering Social Workers for Practice with Vulnerable Older Adults

Barbara Soniat and Monica Melady Micklos

Barbara A. Soniat, PhD, MSW, is an associate professor at the Catholic University of America’s National Catholic School of Social Service (NCSSS) and director of its Center on Global Aging. She teaches MSW practice courses and a course on clinical social work practice with older adults, and she is co-principal investigator for a Council on Social Work Education gero-ed project. Dr. Soniat also serves as a commissioner for the American Bar Association’s Commission on Law and Aging. She has worked in the fields of social work and gerontology for over 30 years. For over 20 years, her career effectively integrated clinical practice, research, teaching, and interdisciplinary field-based education of professional students. Dr. Soniat is the former long-time director of the George Washington University (GWU) and IONA Senior Services geriatric assessment and case management programs, where for over two decades she implemented collaborative partnerships between a university medical center (GWU), a public agency (the Washington, DC, Office on Aging), a private agency (IONA Senior Services), and several schools of social work (NCSSS, Howard University, University of Maryland, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Alabama) and departments of psychiatry (GWU and Georgetown University). Through these endeavors, she has worked with many social workers, case managers, student learners, and colleagues to develop, test, modify, and refine models and tools for education, research, and practice with vulnerable older adults. Dr. Soniat has a strong interest in pursuing answers to practice-generated research questions. She is a featured speaker at national, international, regional, and local conferences.

Monica Melady Micklos, MSW, was the founding director of ESM Cares, a geriatric assessment and care management service under the auspices of Episcopal Senior Ministries of Washington, DC. For the past 18 years, she has worked with various institutions that are committed to promoting best practices and increasing the competencies of social workers who practice with vulnerable older adults. In her continuing efforts to improve quality of life for older adults, Ms. Micklos is currently developing a professional service that provides training and supervision to social workers and senior service agencies. She is coauthor of a model for assessing capacity of older adults and has presented workshops discussing concepts of the model at numerous local, regional, and national conferences. Ms. Micklos’s MSW is from the Catholic University of America’s National Catholic School of Social Service. She has also held social work positions at Georgetown University Hospital and Prince George’s County Hospital.