Today we celebrate our colleague Nicole Amico Kane, Director of Care Management. This month marks Nicole’s ten-year work anniversary at Aging Wisdom.
Nicole oversees our care management team as mentor, director, and visionary leader. She also guides and mentors our University of Washington social work student interns. In addition, Nicole frequently makes informative and empowering presentations in the community.
Recently, Nicole was recognized as Outstanding Chapter Member of the Year by the Western Region Chapter (WRC) of our professional association, the Aging Life Care Association (ALCA), during the ALCA annual conference held in Minneapolis.
Nicole has been an ALCA member since 2011. In 2021, Nicole spearheaded and began facilitating a monthly Member Resource Group for ALCA Supervisors. She also serves on the WRC conference planning committee.
Below, Nicole reflects on why she chose social work and care management, decisions for which we and our clients are forever grateful.
Why did you choose Social Work and pursue an MSW degree? Or did Social Work choose you? Even as a young kid, I was always interested in understanding the behavior of people. This led to me to seek my undergraduate degree in Psychology. Knowing that I was someone that needed some level of energy and variety in my day, I could not imagine sustaining my attention to do therapy alone. Once I learned that social work was a way to apply my knowledge but work in a variety of capacities, I knew that was the right path for me. I also knew it was hard to elevate your role as a social worker or earn much with just an undergraduate degree, so I always planned to get my MSW. I enjoyed school so that part was easy.
What drew you to working with older adults? It was by chance actually. Like many new grads, I started my post-graduate work focused on children and families. But I quickly became burnt out working for Child Protective Services. I happened to meet a social worker who worked in hospice, and she recruited me. I loved the work and did that for a while before discovering private care management and how that allowed you to help older adults in a much broader sense.
What do you love most about your work? The variety and challenge are what drive me and keep me motivated. I also enjoy the fact that most of the individuals working in this industry only last if they are truly committed and have a good sense of professional boundaries. So, if you do this work long enough, you get the benefit of being surrounded by amazing colleagues that you learn from and make the work fun!
Our founder, Lisa Mayfield, created this delightful narrative poem that celebrates all the goodness and light that encapsulates our wonderful colleague Nicole:
Thank you Nicole!
