Aging and Health Graduate Certificate

Social workers and other healthcare and human service practitioners are at the forefront of ensuring that older adults and their family members lead healthy, productive and respected lives well into their later years. Challenges related to an aging society are well-documented: ageism and discrimination; increased health- and long-term care costs due to increased numbers of people with chronic medical conditions, disability and excess mortality; increased population dependency ratios, rising poverty among specific subgroups; family caregiving challenges; and increased pressure on programs and services in the U.S. The certificate advances students’ ability to apply knowledge of the biological, psychological, social and cultural aspects of aging, and the clinical interventions that enhance well-being in later life.

The USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work offers university certificates that provide students advanced practice or research training through a social justice and intercultural competence lens that emphasizes community, organizational and environmental justice. Certificates are designed to complement and deepen training provided through our degree programs by focusing on experiential application of concepts in relation to particular and diverse client populations, settings and systems. Each certificate consists of at least 12 units, which may in part be satisfied by courses completed for a degree program. Certificates are also available to graduate students from other disciplines and to employed professionals.