A MULTIDISCIPLINARY PRACTICE MODEL FOR INDEPENDENT PRACTITIONERS WHO WORK WITH OLDER ADULTS IN THE COMMUNITY

This article presents a framework for the integration of community services for older adults. A model for multidisciplinary practice is introduced to teach students and professionals how independent practitioners can integrate their community practices. Practitioners from disciplines such as medicine, nursing, social work, psychiatry, psychology, finance, law, and religion can develop collaborative community practices to more effectively serve older adults. A generic multidisciplinary instrument for use with this model was developed for assessment and referral purposes. Collaboration has been the mark of professional behavior in institutional settings. This article applies these principles to the community practice setting. Reform efforts are necessary to advance from the current ways of thinking to more effective community practice strategies. Community efforts have not followed the lead of professional efforts in institutional settings in the development of collaborative, interdisciplinary planning for older adults. Educators can use this model to teach students and practitioners a new nontraditional method for community practice. It is imperative in this time of challenge in the field of gerontology that practitioners examine new ideas and adopt new models in their teaching and professional practices.     

Education for Interdisciplinary Community Collaboration and Development: The Components of a Core Curriculum by Community Practitioners

Social workers are actively engaging in the practice of interdisciplinary community collaboration (ICC) with the goal of bringing diverse groups together to improve the conditions of communities and enhance the quality of life of population groups. Yet, collaborations are challenging and require great skill and commitment. The pedagogy and the content of curricula have become a more prominent part of teaching to macro practice students and practitioners the art of effectively convening and moving collaborative efforts forward. This article adds to the literature on the content and methods of teaching students and novice practitioners the competencies embedded in ICC. It provides empirical data from six focus groups of experienced community practitioners (social workers and others) in New York City who identified components of a core curriculum for this work. Eight months later, these 33 community practitioners were asked to reprioritize the topics and concepts that they had collectively identified at the earlier time. Skills such as the ability to share power, manage differences, include the constituency and diplomacy are among those discussed. Core curriculum themes, the pedagogy and process, and the attributes and values necessary for training an ICC practitioner are presented.     

Distance Education in Australia

Distance education in Australia has been an important part of the development of the nation's social, cultural and economic infrastructure since the beginning of this century. This article outlines some of the main features of distance education in Australia from the earliest forms of correspondence education, through to contemporary distance education.     

Archival science and postmodernism: new formulations for old concepts

Process rather than product, becoming rather than being, dynamic rather than static, context rather than text, reflecting time and place rather than universal absolutes—these have become the postmodern watchwords for analyzing and understanding science, society, organizations, and business activity, among others. They should likewise become the watchwords for archival science in the new century, and thus the foundation for a new conceptual paradigm for the profession. Postmodernism is not the only reason for reformulating the main precepts of archival science. Significant changes in the purpose of archives as institutions and the nature of records are other factors which, combined with postmodern insights, form the basis of the new perception of archives as documents, institutions, and profession in society. This essay explores the nature of postmodernism and archival science, and suggest links between the two. It outlines two broad changes in archival thinking that underpin the archival paradigm shift, before suggesting new formulations for most traditional archival concepts.