Role of Social Workers in Graying America - Case Study Example

Role of Social Workers in the Graying America Graying America is a situation of a major concern and the aging are always brought to the attention of social service because of the effects of old age on mental and physical functioning. Social workers need to be knowledgeable in understanding and providing the best service to the aging to enhance belief and acceptance and address all the challenges affecting greying America. Aging is considered as a discrete state in life that involves distinct change in roles and activities hence requires special attention from the social workers. Social workers play greater role in overcoming challenges facing aging and further help in preventing crisis and counsel the old people. When providing services, social workers usually have cultural and societal issues to deal with such as gender, race, religion, ethnicity, and social status. It is therefore important for social workers to carry out self-evaluation and further evaluate their clients’ cultures and beliefs in order to deliver a sensitive and high quality services. Introduction Historically and cross-culturally, aging is a relative term and social work practice in the field of aging ought to be understood within a contemporary cultural and historical context because of the expanding knowledge base and social concerns affecting practice. According to Kristine (2013), numbers and proportions of elderly Americans are increasing thus increasing demand for geriatric services. Demographic changes have made the emerging social, economic and demographic realities shake foundations of existing paradigms about the graying Americans leading to a new interest in how people age and how social workers view the aging process. Kristine (2013) explains that millions of American population are over the age of sixty-five and those eighty-five years of age and over have shown a huge increase. Social workers are faced with a number of challenges when it comes to caring for the graying America. This article evaluates the roles of social workers in the graying America. Social Worker’s Demand Meeting the social, environmental, psychological, and economic and health needs of the aging group have created demand for professionals with specialized knowledge and expertise in aging (Kristine, 2013). Social work is amongst the professionals that may meticulously deal with the aging because of its uniqueness amongst the health and mental health professions. Social work is concerned about many things affecting the aging such as physical, mental, and social aspects that are critical in offering services to older people and their families (Rozanova, Keating & Eales, 2012). Social workers must ensure that they develop expertise in various aspects including biological, psychological, sociocultural, spiritual aspects of aging as well as race, class, and gender. All these factors influence clients’ functional capacity and therefore understanding them would help a social worker and client in careful evaluation of the client’s needs as part of a holistic individualized treatment (Vlachantoni et al., 2011). Role of Social Worker According to Kristine (2013), graying requires a successful process that involves disease and disability avoidance, engagement with life, including the need for social ties and maintenance of high cognitive and physical function. Social workers should always make sure that they apply mutual aid and prevention strategies including health promotion and self-health care programs to help the aging clients. Vlachantoni et al. (2011), posit that social workers should evaluate their clients’ capability to manage daily affairs and decide the kind of services needed, who should provide them and the best settings in which the services can efficiently delivered. Social workers sought theoretical concepts to augment their knowledge base and strategies as well as timely interventions with the aged and their families for further integration of the most current knowledge of human behavior. Treatment Modalities Rozanova, Keating & Eales (2012) explains that social workers also act in a wider range of treatment modalities that offer a broad foundation in their practice because of their suitability with older adults and their families. For instance, because social workers understand that aging, challenges’ are part of their families’ trouble; family therapy is always conducted to provide a greater opportunity to view clients as both individuals and family members (Vlachantoni et al., 2011). Family involvement is very crucial because families normally offer supportive exchange and caregiving patterns. Social workers should consider some of the things that may affect family availability when dealing with aging clients (Kristine, 2013). Every family’s uniqueness system of exchange should be explored in therapy because of the emotional contact they have with the aging hence, the need to treat family as an organizational structure that may help to accomplish an end. Social workers further play an important role in the choice of possible interventions across systems especially those social workers working in managed care or case managers. Social workers also address problems of living and pays special attention to how the aging can achieve competence and benefit from natural life experiences. It is worth noting that social workers view complex phenomenon related to totality of a client’s life space such as better understanding how the older adult spends her or his time to promote health and continued growth to the aging (Vlachantoni et al., 2011). Gerontological Social workers, particularly gerontological social workers have the capabilities of helping older adults and their families maintain wellbeing and serve as advocates for older people by providing a vital link between older individuals and the services they need (Vlachantoni et al., 2011). These types of social workers, who are however very few in America, are further able to promote independence, autonomy, and dignity to the aging in a variety of settings. Some of the settings that gerontological social workers may sufficiently provide their services include hospitals, nursing homes, hospices, and adult day centers that normally see the aging exposed in different challenges (Kristine, 2013). However, the growing number of older people in America tends to create an unprecedented demand for aging related initiatives. Identity Development Social workers are required to apprehend that identity development is not essentially a linear process and that people do not actually begin at a particular stage and progress to the next stage (Vlachantoni et al., 2011). It is very possible that aspects such as exposure to racism, individual maturation, social class, and gender could trigger an individual into another stage or cause the person to regress into a previous stage and that identity is a fluid process. Social workers have the responsibility of understanding that identity are fluid processes that usually evolve when people gather and interpret information that may either support or distort the view of themselves or their personality (Rozanova, Keating & Eales, 2012). However, it is worth noting that some clients have strong sense of identity development or perhaps burdened by derisory self-identity as worthwhile people, this justifies the need to understand how to evaluate a specific stage of development and many dimensions of social work. Culture and Identity In general, culture, which involves ethnicity, economic status, religion, gender, or sexual orientation acts as the building block of people’s identity because people experience certain attendant affect that make group and their markers’ crucial (Ferguson, 2013). Moreover, socially determined identity is very crucial and may be equated to individual constructions and therefore social workers, when interacting with their clients, should understand that ethnicity, economic status and gender may not be of their clients’ choosing. Social workers may sometimes assign identification to a client based on predetermined racial, economic status or gender classifications that the client may not prefer or like (Duff, Tahbaz & Chan, 2012). It is therefore clear that when dealing with the aging, social workers should strictly engage in competent practice with respect to race, gender, and social economic status (Ferguson, 2013). There are clear guidelines that social workers should follow in order to avoid challenges that may arise while attending to their aging clients. According to Duff, Tahbaz & Chan (2012), it is crucial for the social workers to understand culture and its function in human behavior and society and recognize all the strengths that exist in many areas including gender, race, and economic or social status. Duff, Tahbaz & Chan (2012) assert that social workers need to acknowledge their background of their aging clients’ cultures and make sure that they provide services that are competent and fair as far as sensitivity of their clients’ cultures are concerned. Social workers also ought to obtain education about and understand the nature of social diversity as well as oppressions linked with race, ethnicity, social status, gender, and sexual orientation in order to avoid many challenges that may arise while dealing with their aging clients. In addition, social workers are required to consider how culture forms conceptions of personal and group identities such as gender, race and economic status because these will determine how they view themselves and relate to their clients (Duff, Tahbaz & Chan, 2012). Social workers should carry out critical self-analysis and understand their own backgrounds based on power, privilege and how their personal identities may further assist when delivering services to aging clients. Important things to be considered by Social Workers Considering challenges facing the aging population in America and social workers’ role in rendering service to the aging group, there are important things to be considered by the professionals (Kristine, 2013). Social workers use many approaches to avoid cultural generalization and misidentification of their aging clients’ history, experiences, and backgrounds such as flexibility and creativity in existing development models. Some of the important goals that may prove effective include traditional identity-development goals that may include identity assigned by others, identity with two or more groups, identity with a new group and adoption of a symbolic race, gender, or social status (Duff, Tahbaz & Chan, 2012). Social workers must first appreciate that aging clients may possess multiple identities, live, and function within several cultural realities and that clients’ self-identity are influenced by their relationship with others. Social workers further exercise a great deal of sensitivity and show concern for the specific needs of clients and understand that problem solving with aging clients may unfold in a socio-cultural-political context (Duff, Tahbaz & Chan, 2012). Finally, social workers usually conglomerate their profession’s code of ethics with their own knowledge, experiences, and skills to help them effect transformation in the lives of their aging clients. Race, Social Class and Gender Race, class, and gender act as the cornerstone of stratification and shape access to social opportunity, demarcate social and further shape social workers understanding of deviance. They further create contours of battle story of deviant response and societal reaction because the treatment of these statuses in the literature on deviance is varied. Race, class, and gender have simultaneously act as the margin and the center of the sociology deviance that are sometimes unspoken, unexamined subtext of analysis. Social workers must understand these variables and address them singularly as separate influences. The relationship to these variables to aging must be properly understood as part of interlocking system of oppression. Race, class and age are significant status that help in shaping access to the opportunity structure that improve service delivery and they require specific skills, knowledge, rationales and avenues for engagement. Privileged and empowered group are white male and financially well off people compared to color, women and poor. The white, rich males tend to have lesser emotional challenges compared to black, poor women who require a lot of attention. Conclusion Generally, social workers focus on client’s strengths, challenges in relation to their environments, and address the role of culture in the helping process (Duff, Tahbaz & Chan, 2012). Social workers are also encouraged to attend to culturally sensitive social work practice and adhere to behaviors that are consistent with the social work profession’s code of ethics. Moreover, social workers recognizes the role of biological factors in client functioning , examining client psychological well-being and adaptation as well as supporting aging’s social relationships and support networks. They may also discuss the aging’s spirituality as a source of life satisfaction and help in determining client level of functionality and need for intervention. There are also family aspects that need to be taken into consideration by social workers such as addressing the family as a caregiving system, exploring the development of family care over time and examine the role family members’ play in caregiving activities. Finally, social workers’ role in aging entails considering the current cultural and historical milieu in which practice takes place and explore the family’s connection to larger social systems. References Duff, A. J., Tahbaz, A., & Chan, C. (2012). The Interactive Effect of Cultural Intelligence and Openness on Task Performance. Research & Practice in Human Resource Management, 20(1), 1-17. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1325012487?accountid=45049 Ferguson Jr, R.,W. (2013). The road ahead: The Graying of America and Its Implications for Finance and the Economy. Business Economics, 48(2), 108-112. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/be.2013.8 Kristine, M. K. (2013). Understanding the Concept of Care in Cross-Cultural Settings. Cross Cultural Management, 20(2), 100-123. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13527601311313373 Rozanova, J., Keating, N., & Eales, J. (2012). Unequal Social Engagement for Older Adults: Constraints on Choice. Canadian Journal on Aging, 31(1), 25-36. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0714980811000675 Vlachantoni et al. (2011). Measuring Unmet Need for Social Care amongst Older People. Population Trends, (145), 60-72. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1039643244?accountid=45049 Read More