James Reinardy

Director, School of Social Work
Associate Professor

Office Hours:
Wednesdays, 9:00am to 11:am or by appointment through Jill Beaudette (612-624-4243)

Areas of Interest

Enhancing Autonomy and Decision Making of Older Persons
Alternative Models of Long-term Care
Multidisciplinary Geriatric Team Training
Long-term Care Policy
Social Welfare Policy and Community Organizing
Leadership and Organizational Change

School of Social Work

Rm 105 PetersH
1404 Gortner Ave
St Paul, MN 55108

Tel: 612-624-3673

jreinard@umn.edu

Degrees

Ph.D., University of Minnesota,
M.S.W., University of Minnesota-Duluth,
M.A., Education, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul MN,
B.A., Philosophy, St. Paul Seminary, St. Paul MN

Current Research

Exploring the use of Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT) to develop models to improving the everyday decision-making competence of older adults.
Investigating attitudes and social work practice of social workers in nursing homes towards engendering decision making and autonomy among long-term care residents.
Studying the impact over time of control over the decision to enter a nursing home and its relationship to measures of well being, including health, mental health, social activities.
Exploring the qualities of leadership and their impact upon organizational change.

Biography

In the 1970s Dr. Reinardy served as Director of the Office of Social Concerns, Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota. In this position he led “Campaign for Human Development,” an initiative of the Catholic Church to fund and support social and economic change efforts controlled by the poor. He also served as liaison between the Diocese of Duluth and the American Indian community. These and other experiences led him to seek an MSW at the School of Social Development, University of Minnesota-Duluth. The Duluth program focused upon macro practice, community development, and policy, fitting well with his interests. Having completed the degree, he joined the faculty at UMD where he taught in the Bachelor of Social Development Program and filled administrative positions until 1983, when he was admitted to the PhD Program, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. There, research opportunities at the Long Term Care Resource Center (Dr. Rosalie Kane, Director, School of Public Health) led him to explore, among other issues, decision making and its impact upon the bio-psycho-social outcomes of long-term care residents. In 1987 he became an Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where he taught macro practice and later served as Associate Dean. He returned to Minnesota in 1993 where he continued his research collaboration with the Long-Term Care Resource Center and taught in the areas of policy practice, social services to older adults (MSW Program) and social welfare policy and research (PhD and MSW Programs). During this time he became involved in grants initiatives to enrich the social work curriculum (“Aging Across the Curriculum”) as well as interdisciplinary initiatives to develop a curriculum for interdisciplinary team training for health care professionals such as nurses, pharmacists, physicians, and social workers. Through these he became associated with many of the recent initiatives in social work sponsored by the Hartford Foundation and currently serves as a member of the CSWE Gero-Ed Center National Advisory Committee. He was appointed Director of the School of Social Work in 2008.

Dr. Reinardy’s exploration of older adults and decision making has taken a significant turnaround in the past two years. Although he has looked at the impact of perceived decision making on the heath, mental health, social life and satisfaction of older adults, he has done this through aggregate data and has discussed its implications for policy and system change. Currently, he is gearing his efforts much more towards a micro approach. Drawing upon what we have learned from decision-making research and models such as Multi-Attribute Utility Theory, and combing this with our understanding of normal aging, what models can we develop that will best help older adults and their families sort through the many alternatives and competing values that comprise major life decisions? All of us make our share of “bad” decisions and we could all profit from learning how to better make decisions. But making good decisions is particularly important in the later years of life when there are fewer resources and less time to recoup our mistakes.

Publications