The Impact Of Social Work On The Elderly

In this paper, the role of a social worker will be addressed. A Human Service professional has, in its hands, the responsibilities in the life of the clients and families they meet. The tremendous and arduous responsibilities they take on include, but are not limited to, the well-being and care of people and their communities. Such roles can be helping others manage the care of a family member, assisting individuals experiencing problems with family relations and conflicts, dealing with changes that come with growing old, aiding those suffering mental illness and or those individuals struggling with addictions. Briefly

Generally, social work is affiliated with the younger population or topics of abuse and neglect in the home. While this can be a vital part of the job description, social work is a diversified field with many other career opportunities. A social worker’s ethical job responsibilities are outlined in NASW Code of Ethics (1999). The following sections will review these responsibilities in relation to aging populations and a social workers practice.

According to (Dulmus & Sowers, 2012, p.106), the history of social work is one of an old religiously grounded ethos of offering, aid and comfort. This shows that social work has been around for quite a long time, helping the unfortunate and it has developed more throughout these past centuries. The profession was largely shaped by Westerns idea and events. (Chenoweth &McAuliffe, 2015, p.32). The ideas and events included could have been war, poverty and other social reforms. That is when social welfare was needed to give aid and help solve these issues. Social work largely expanded in England in the 16th during the Elizabethan poor laws and later on in America between 17 and 18th century (Dulmus & Sowers, p.6). This essay is going to focus on how social work has evolved or changed for the better from the 1960s till present.

The Ontario Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse states that 10% of older adults are abused in some way; which is over 160,000 people in Ontario. Elderly abuse is categorized as the violence, mistreatment or neglect of an elderly person by caregivers, service providers, family, or even strangers (Canadian Government). A senior citizen can be abused physically, financially, psychologically, and rarely, sexually. The mistreatment is usually because of the influence a caregiver has over an older adult. The abuse on the elderly can happen in long term care facilities or in the home; it usually goes unnoticed and unreported (Elder Abuse and Neglect). The concern of abuse on the elderly population is a growing issue due to the increasing populace of older people and baby boomers; physical, financial, and emotional abuse are the most common forms. The problem needs to be taken more seriously, the types of abuse may vary, but regardless of the form, abuse among the elderly needs to end.

There is diversity among all Canadian, hence there is differences among the aging population. Not all seniors are aging well and have the appropriate programs and services to meet their needs. Some seniors are victims of abuse and some are living in isolation and poverty. Some seniors suffer from chronic illness and other socio-economic factors limit the amount of money they can put away for retirement. Hence these middle and low income elderly retirees will have to depend mainly on the pension plan that is offered between the age of 60- 65. The age of 60-65 is regarded in Canada as the age of retirement. This paper will focus mainly on the disadvantaged older populations. The disadvantaged older populations are those who are currently

When presented with the word “elderly,” a twenty-year-old might begin to think of the joys of retirement when an older person has spent their life building a comfortable bank account; they then get to reward themselves by journeying around the world with their near and most dear companion. When reality sets in, that person may realize that a lot of today’s elderly are living in nursing homes or living week-by-week not knowing if they are going to be able to leave their hospital bed just to go relax in their recliner at home. While it is true that some elderly enjoy their last twenty or thirty years on earth, a lot of the elderly in America are struggling to hang on to life while being abused every day by healthcare workers or even loved ones. While many people have been working endlessly to put a stop to elder abuse, not everyone can say the same.

Recently, Statistic Canada has point out “Seniors are projected to become more numerous than children in Canada by 2017 --- a milestone in the country’s history.” (Statistics Canada, 2016) To discuss more in depth, according to the data collected from Statistic Canada, there is a post-war baby boom in 1950s, afterwards, there has been a steady decline in fertility. The median age in Canada was 27.2 in 1956 and climbed to 39.5 in 2006 (Statistics Canada, 2016). With the decrease in fertility and mortality, the problem of aging population in Canada occurs. In present time, those great number of baby boomers are now leave to workforce and begin to retire. It results in the rise of Canada’s elderly dependency ration. (National Seniors Council(Canada), 2011) For elders, the performance in many physical and mental tasks tend to decline with age, which

In the article “Don’t Seniors Deserve Better?” (MacQueen, K. 2011), MacQueen writes that many elderly patients in the midst of a medical crisis go straight to the hospital and stay there, tied to machines, consuming high-tech resources to little effect, growing weaker until the dim hope of a nursing home bed is made available. He also continues by saying that elderly citizens suffer a five percent functional decline for every day in hospital. This is a great issue; the fact being that Canada does not have enough long term facilities for the elderly population to stay in nursing homes is not being fair to the seniors of Canada. In fact, (MacQueen K. 2011) remarks, that each day in Canada, 7550 hospital beds are filled with the elderly who should be in long-term care nursing homes or in rehabilitation, yet they cannot get this option. Also, outside of the hospital, many elderly people run into the financial crisis of caring for their medical needs without the help of the Canadian Government. In the article “The unexpected costs of caring for your elderly parents” (Leong, M. 2014) Peter Silin says, “People think the government will pay for home care and nursing homes which they will, but that help is really limited.” In fact, “Seven in 10 caregivers were providing some sort of financial assistance to their parents or aging relatives, a 2012 BMO survey suggested, and half of these individuals said they had to adjust their own retirement plans as a result.” (Leong, M. 2014). With that, it costs $1,000 to keep a person in a hospital bed for a day, long term care costs $130 a day, and home care costs $55 dollars a day. (Simpson, C., Caissie M., Velji, K. 2015). After looking at the negative impacts of keeping our elderly in the hospitals, as MacQueen stated earlier, “elderly citizens suffer a five

By 2036, nearly one in four Canadians will be a senior” (Stastics Canada, 2014, Demographics section, para. 3). There are widespread implications on the healthcare system, the economy, and society as a whole as “Canada’s median age is the oldest it’s ever been – 40.5 years old” (Paperny, 2015, para 2). “While Canadians older than age 65 account for less than 15 per cent of the population, they consume 45 per cent of provincial and territorial government health care dollars” (Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI), 2014, p. 16). One of the most important issues for our aging population is the lack of home care in our current society. We cannot simply create more homecare, there are “complex webs and loops of cause and effect with the inherent potential for unpredictable and far-reaching consequences” (Van Beurden, Kia, Zask, Dietrich, & Rose, 2011, p. 74). We must first determine if it is necessary, then consider funding, staffing, resource allocation, implications on individual wellbeing, and long term effectiveness among other

The role of social workers is very wide- ranging in Australia. They practice with commitment to human rights, social justice and professional integrity to solve the problems in the community (www.aasw.asn.au). In this essay the focus of discussion is that the social worker will have a considerable role in disability and aged care even by applying individualised funding and personalised budget models. In 2012 Australian Bureau of Statistics, it is shown that 18.5% of total Australian population have disability and 14% were aged over 65(www.abs.gov.au). Therefore, Australian government introduced various programmes to support aged and disabled people; such as National Disability Insurance Scheme. This essay examines whether the personalised budget or individualised funding reduced the role of social worker in disability and aged care. My view here is that personalisation will not lessen the role of social worker. Instead it expands the scope of social worker as helper, broker and a mediator between the client and different organizations. This essay will explain the implementation of individualised budget and personalised funding in the context to disability and aged care. Further, it will discuss that how the social workers will still play a relevant role in the sectors of disability and aged care even under the personalised funding models. Finally, the essay will conclude the significance of social worker in these newly transformed models of funding.

Income is a crucial indicator of the given standard of living of seniors and it also directly impacts their health. Currently in Canada, low income among seniors is at a record low. This has been largely attributed to the Canada’s retirement income system, particularly the various pension plans and private savings. In 2003, the most susceptible to low income are single seniors, especially women, with a rate of 18.9% (155,000), compared with 14.7% (46,000) for senior men (4).

the problems of aged person). Social workers work with active healthy older adults and also with

Even though the elderly policies are a success to some extent in reducing elder abuse there are limitations too. The federal laws and the Criminal Code of Canada do not address particular legal responsibilities of ageism, such as compulsory reporting which remains to be left to state level legislation (Donovan & Regehr, 2010). Also, Canada’s pension policies for reducing mortality are expensive (Emery & Matheson, 2012). Moreover, older adults are considered in the ageing policy as unproductive and reliant (Crampton, 2011), which will discredit the elderly. The multiplicity of the legislative and programmatic reaction to elder abuse can be a major challenge for social work practitioners (Donovan & Regehr, 2010). Canada has a federal Criminal

This publication outlines the different types of social work, such as social work in the hospital, in the home, in the workplace, and even including the court aspect of social work (Richmond,1922). I feel from the book What is Case Work has informed my practice. Working in my practice has a big impact on being a mandated reporter which leads to knowing what is social work case work. Social case work is known as an ongoing process off exploration of several studies, assessment of diagnosis, formulation of goals and treatment planning, intervention, evaluation and termination. “It is still my opinion, that the elements of

One of the greatest challenges of the twenty first century will be the tremendous increase in the number of older adults throughout the world. Elderly people are the most rapidly increasing age group in Canada. In 2000 there was about 3.8 million Canadians were 65 years older. Statistics of Canada projects that by 2021, it will get doubled (Hick S., 2010, p.270). It is sure that this demographic trend will affect most part of our society, especially the health care needs and the delivery of health services. There will be a huge increase in the issues that affect the older Canadians. It is important that future health care professionals especially the social Service workers should be prepared to meet the needs of the increasing aging population across the globe. This paper examines the main problems faced by senior population in Canada, the different social work theories related to ageism and the different roles, values, knowledge and responsibilities needed for gerontological social work practice.