Time, as they say, is inevitable. It forges legacies, establishes age, and eventually, shapes us all.
The Gerontology Resources and the Aging Community in Education (GRACE) Program, a hat has led dozens of social workers into serving older their care partners, is going through its own shaping as program champion Sarah Swords, pictured left in the grey jacket, hands the reins – along with an assistant dean role – over to Joan Asseff, pictured right in the black jacket.
“It’s exciting and mildly terrifying. As is true with most life changes, right?” said Swords, who officially serves as clinical associate professor and assistant dean for master’s programs at the Steve Hicks School of Social Work.
Swords, who will retire in Summer 2024, has been involved with SHS as a faculty member since 2010. She has led the GRACE program since she joined SHS and has served as assistant dean of master’s programs since 2017. In her more than 40 years of social work experience, she has worked with survivors of domestic violence, had a private practice in psychotherapy, conducted supervision and consultation, worked as a practicum instructor, and more.
When interviewing for her initial role at SHS more than a decade ago, Swords quickly realized that she had valuable experience working with older adults. Her grandmother would stay with her family most of the year and Swords was one of her caregivers. She then worked as a nurse’s aide during summers, learning about how important assisted living and long-term care was.
By the 1990s, leaders in health care understood that the coming baby boomer generation would severely strain current delivery systems, which had insufficient professionals trained in geriatrics. The Hartford Foundation, for one, began funding training programs in medicine, nursing, physical therapy, and social work, to grow the workforce.
“The UT School of Social Work benefited by receiving funding for faculty, students, and field instructors, to focus on social work in aging,” Swords said. “The GRACE Program grew directly out of this workforce development process.”
By the time Swords joined the faculty, a strong foundation of faculty and community practice expertise existed, which she leveraged to build the GRACE Program from the tiny program it was when it was started in 2009, in which 6 students participated.
As of spring 2024, more than 280 students have graduated with the designation of GRACE Scholar. The Program’s growth has been fueled by student interest and generous funding from the St. David’s Foundation.
“We could not reach the number of students and community professionals without our partnership with Andrew Levack, our program officer from the St. David’s Foundation. It has been a transformational relationship,” said Swords.
Through practicum education, educational enrichment events, and mentorship, the program prepares students for micro, mezzo and macro levels of care for aging adults. Students who indicate an interest in aging, end-of-life care, medical social work, and other fields for their internships, will be recommended to the GRACE program for practicum placement.
“Older adults are often forgotten, dismissed and unheard,” said Nadia Velasquez (MSSW ’16), who was one of the students who participated in the GRACE Program. “As a social worker, I find it important and meaningful to bear witness and advocate for older adults who go without their needs met.”
Velasquez now works as an in-home therapist at Family Eldercare, where she provides psychotherapy to older adults and those with chronic illness who are homebound. With this work, she provides mental health services and other care to them in their homes. She says that the funding for the GRACE Program through the St. David’s Foundation was a huge motivating factor for her as a first-generation college student. The scholarships the Foundation provided helped her to be able to focus on the older adult population and still have financial stability.
Other alumni from the program, such as Delilah Dominguez (MSSW ‘14) who now works as a physician’s assistant for Yale Psychiatric Hospital in the inpatient geriatric unit, said that the GRACE Program prepared her to serve older adults in every capacity in her career. “Dean Swords is one of the most skilled clinicians I have ever met,” Dominguez said. “She has a keen ability to read people, and by seeing our areas of growth, it encouraged how we helped others.”
Dominguez added that Asseff, Sword’s successor, will be a valuable asset to the program moving forward because of her intentional nature and firm belief in social justice.
Asseff, who became co-director for the program in 6/2023, is a licensed clinical social worker and a clinical associate professor at SHS. She has extensive social work experience in the areas of hospice, skilled nursing, home health, grief and loss counseling, and case management with older adults and their caregivers.
When Swords took on leadership of the GRACE Program, Asseff was one of the first practicum instructors that Swords contacted to ask if she would host GRACE students at a skilled nursing facility in South Austin. Asseff continued to host students every year for internships, and was eventually hired as a full-time clinical faculty member for SHS in May of 2017. Asseff’s career in social services for aging adults made her the perfect counterpart to Swords. In 2020, she began assisting Dean Swords with GRACE program coordination and student mentorship, which represented the beginning of their partnership to support and grow the program.
This summer, Asseff will take over both as the sole director of GRACE and as assistant dean for master’s programs when Swords retires. The two are actively planning and collaborating with each other on the transition, and Swords said she is excited by the work that Asseff will continue to do in order to grow the program.
“I’ve always been aware of the people whose shoulders I stand on, and I couldn’t do the work I do without people having confidence in me,” said Swords. “Over the past seven years, we have worked as a team to make this program one of the many gems in the Steve Hicks School. I am proud that the GRACE Program has achieved national recognition for contributing to work force development in social work in aging. I hope many more students find their spark in social work with older adults through participation in the program.”
“I am so honored and grateful to carry the legacy of Sarah Swords forward,” Asseff said. “This program is ahead of its time, and I can’t wait to see what resources we can add to promote innovation at the Steve Hicks School.”