News
CADER Team Shares Expertise at “On Aging 2025”
Researchers at the Center for Aging and Disability Education and Research (CADER) at the BU School of Social Work (BUSSW) recently shared their expertise at the American Society on Aging’s (ASA) 2025 On Aging Conference, the United States’ largest annual conference on aging.
Prof. Bronwyn Keefe, CADER director, Annalee Wilson, CADER Evaluation and Workforce Training Manager, and BUSSW doctoral candidate Megan Nizza (PhD’27) showcased the impact of recent workforce development programs and community behavioral health initiatives designed and implemented by CADER. This year’s conference focused on the theme of Ageism & Culture, with an emphasis on combating ageism.
Case Management Accelerated Training: A New Workforce Development Program
In 2023, Tri-Valley, Inc., an Aging Services Access Point (ASAP), launched the Case Management Accelerated Training (CMAT) program to foster the next generation of case managers. Prof. Keefe and Wilson shared how CADER’s Person-Centered Case Management (PCCM) certificate supported Tri-Valley Inc.’s CMAT program, incorporating the innovative certificate into the online portion of Tri-Valley’s CMAT curriculum. Tri-Valley managers presented alongside the CADER team, sharing how the PCCM certificate has transformed their workforce.
“The [PCCM] certificate provides a deeper historical background that we don’t cover in our CMAT classes,” said Joe Vaudreuil, Tri-Valley program manager. “It offers a wonderful set of resources to help our students understand where case management fits into the larger human services field.”
View the presentation slides here.
A Three-Component Community-Wide Approach to Behavioral Health in Aging
CADER partnered with the City of Salem, Massachusetts on a three-component community health program focused on behavioral health in aging. Prof. Keefe, Wilson, and Nizza explained how CADER worked with Salem to produce an informational, multi-language media campaign to spread awareness of behavioral health challenges older adults face. The team also conducted workshops on behavioral health topics for older adults in Salem, and delivered CADER’s Behavioral Health in Aging certificate to city professionals across Salem enabling them to better support older adults in the community.