UW-Eau Claire is one step closer to securing $213,000 for a curriculum that will offer training in a basically untouched area of social work – assisting rural adults.

By law social workers are required to fulfill 30 hours of professional training every two years. For professionals who need to continue their education and want to further develop their knowledge base, the money will be used to develop a core curriculum, said Pat Christopherson, Interim Associate Dean of the Eau Claire school of human sciences and services.

The program will emphasize training in the areas of alcohol and drug abuse, mental health, developmental disabilities, supervision and administration, adult protective services and applied geriatric education.

“There is federal and private money to support continuing education primarily for families and children,” Christopherson said. “But this new curriculum’s focus will be on adults, especially in rural areas.”

She said adults who live in rural areas with social services needs have more difficulty than suburban or urban adults in accessing help from social workers. This curriculum will better equip social workers to support those adults who previously may have gone without help because of lack of accessibility.

The funding was recently supported by Sen. Herb Kohl, (D.-Wis.) and still needs to be signed into the 2002 appropriations bill for the U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education.

Mark Loughridge, a social worker at Sacred Heart Hospital, said this new program is needed and will be appreciated within the social work field. “Each community has its own unique way of solving problems, and its own budgetary constraints,” Loughridge said. “To know how to function in a given community and for specific areas would be very valuable.”

Jill McCarthy, Director of social services and utilization review at Luther Midelfort Hospital, said at hospitals social workers serve many adults and people within the elderly community. She said she would definitely seek out training that will enable her to be most effective to that community. “We constantly look for good programs to go to for those hours we need,” McCarthy said. “I’m pleased that we won’t have to travel very far.”