Daniel B. Kaplan

Biography

Daniel B. Kaplan currently working on a grant-funded project to demonstrate the effectiveness and acceptability of a professional development initiative called Supervisory Leaders in Aging (www.socialworkers.org/sla). This is a three-year study that brings the program into four states through chapters of the National Association of Social Workers.

Research Interest

Throughout the second half of the 20th century, every major study that attempted to forecast population demographics and workforce capacity portrayed alarming increases in unmet needs of older adults and their families, as well as severe shortages of qualified professionals to respond to those needs. Building workforce capacity to meet the health and mental health needs of older adults and their families is the focus of my scholarship and professional activities. My interdisciplinary health services research agenda builds upon clinical, administrative, and research experiences, and includes studies to build the understanding of how best to prepare social workers, health and mental health clinicians, direct care workers, and family caregivers to provide effective care. As such, I am involved in work that includes several research efforts and a number of service activities, addressing professional practice and gerontological care in different health and social service sectors and among different types of providers, and all of this work fits within a larger global effort to shore up capacity for responding to the unique needs of a rapidly aging population.