Professional Competencies
The competencies are arranged in three major categories: Professional action, knowledge about elders and others in relation to elders, and generic tools of analysis and action
PROFESSIONAL ACTION
Helping elders and their families to meet their needs
- Define individual needs through collaboration
- Select and adapt appropriate solution strategies
- Implement and evaluate solution strategies
- Locate and establish communication with elders who have unmet needs
- Identify and document common problems and needs of clients which suggest need for program, policy, or legislative change.
Community mobilization
- Involve others in initiating and sustaining change
- Provide technical assistance to groups in development of their plans of action
- Mobilize and coordinate the use of resources to address a need or problem, including promotion of natural helping networks
- Facilitate conflict resolution within and between groups and organizations
- Propose and advocate policy, program and legislative change
Planning and program development
- Obtain relevant information
- Analyze information
- Design a policy/program/service modification or innovation
- Evaluate a program element in operation
Education
- Utilize elders as resources/advisors in the development of teaching/training programs
- Assess training/educational needs and interests of target groups
- Choose and carry out a variety of teaching techniques appropriate to target group
- Get target group to participate
- Organize and coordinate training/educational programs
- Analyze the potential advantages of and barriers to cooperative training efforts among agencies and organizations
Administration
- General structure and process, including budget development and fiscal control
- Personnel management
- Establish linkages between own and other agencies to coordinate and improve service delivery
- Self-management
- Information dissemination
THE ELDER, AND OTHERS IN RELATION TO THE ELDER
- Health
- Psychological and behavioral processes
- Social structure and relationships
- Consumer of services, advocate for services, service resource
- Leisure
- Ecology (living environments,transportation, crime, etc)
- Parallel integrative activities
GENERIC TOOLS OF ANALYSIS AND ACTION
- Communication
- Research methodology
- Problem solving
- Sensitivity/awareness
- Versatility in learning