NYU Silver’s Zelda Foster Studies Program in Palliative and End-of-Life Care has been awarded a three-year, $150,000 grant from the Fan Fox and Leslie R. Samuels Foundation for a project that aims to advance the provision of palliative care services to older adults.
Under the grant, NYU Silver will recruit and admit four DSW students over the next three years, selected for their commitment to providing palliative care to older adults in New York City as well as their need for financial assistance in order to pursue their doctoral education. Each will be awarded a $20,000 scholarship from The Samuels Foundation matched by a $10,000 scholarship from the Zelda Foster Studies Program. These Samuels Doctoral Fellows will be charged with co-facilitating one Adaptive Leadership Lab in 2022-23 and another in 2023-24, which will identify adaptive leadership challenges in palliative care and work to generate solutions. Four to six MSW alumni of the Zelda Foster Studies Program who work in palliative care agencies in New York City will be recruited and trained to participate in each Adaptive Leadership Lab. In addition, each of The Samuels Doctoral Fellows will be required to focus their DSW capstone project on some aspect of older adult palliative care and disseminate their findings via journal articles, books, chapters, conference presentations, and/or research.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has shed a light on the enormous demand for and value of palliative care, yet there remain ongoing issues of access, equity, and confusion about how it is different from end-of-life care, particularly for older adults,” said Clinical Professor Dr. Susan Gerbino, the Director of the Zelda Foster Studies Program and a mentor to DSW students whose capstone projects relate to palliative care.
“With this grant from The Samuels Foundation,” said Dr. Gerbino, “NYU Silver’s Zelda Foster Studies Program aims to develop a cadre of doctoral scholars in palliative and end-of-life care who will improve the care of adults and older adults with serious and life-limiting illnesses. Additional goals include knowledge dissemination and increased engagement with the palliative care social work community in New York City, given the collaborative nature of the Adaptive Leadership Lab. We will be working closely with Clinical Associate Professor Dr. Linda Lausell Bryant, the Director of the DSW Program as well as Silver’s Adaptive Leadership Initiative”
“By providing support for scholarships and an innovative Adaptive Leadership Lab in palliative care, The Samuels Foundation will help us attract high quality social work leaders who are interested in improving palliative care for older adults in New York City,” said Dr. Gerbino. “Having a cadre of DSW practitioners who can lead palliative care units, supervise social workers and social work students and engage in the dissemination of new knowledge will impact the care of older adult patients and families in NYC and beyond.“
