Transcript Strengthening Aging and Gerontology Education for Social

Demystifying
Social Work
With Older Adults
Monmouth University
School of Social Work
Prepared by:
Professor Christa Hogan
Picture Yourself at Age 75
 List 4 characteristics that you would like
to have at age 75.
 List 4 characteristics that a 5 year old
passing you on the street would see.
Picture Yourself at 100
 List 4 characteristics that you
would like to have at age 100.
 List 4 characteristics that a 25 year old passing
you on the street would see.
 What has changed since you were age 75?
Ageism
 Term was coined by Robert Butler (1969).
 “ A process of systematic stereotyping and
discrimination against people because they
are old” (Butler, 1987, p. 22).
 “[Ageism] reflects a deep seated uneasiness
on the part of the young and middle-aged…a
personal revulsion to and distaste for
growing old, disease, disability; and fear of
powerlessness, ‘uselessness’, and death”
(Butler, 1969, p.243).
Personal Attitudes About Aging:
 Stereotypes about older people are usually
negative.
 These attitudes convey that older adults are
less valuable as human beings.
 They contribute to inferior or unequal
treatment.
 Attitudes about aging develop early on.
 This attitude hinders our ability to adjust to
normal changes in aging
McInnes-Dittrich, 2009
Ageism and End of Life Issues:
 “…a highly agitated emotional response, invoked by
reference to or discussion of death and dying.”
(Green, 1986)
 Working with older adults is a “constant reminder to
the Social Worker of the logical progression of the life
cycle-from youth to aging and death”. (McInnisDittrich, 2009)
 Society responds by avoiding these topics and
populations
 Even Social Worker’s working with this population
tend to avoid it!
McInnis-Dittrich
What do
you think
fosters
ageism?
Some Facts:
 Aging is a developmental stage
 We all will experience aging ourselves or
through watching our loved ones age.
 At some point we may all face the death of a
loved one, family, friend, co-worker, or
neighbor.
 This reality influences our work with the
elderly on both a conscious and subconscious
level.
McInnis-Dittrich
The Influence of Ageism on Social Work
with Older Adults as a Career Choice:
 Older adults make up nearly 13% of the
population yet less than 6% of Social
Worker’s who belong to NASW want to work
with older adults!
 Do we internalize negative social attitudes
about the elderly?
 Do we believe the negative messages we
hear about Social Work with Older Adults?
McInnes-Dittrich
The Reality About Social Work with
Older Adults:
 High level of skill is
needed
 Requires a very broad
knowledge base
 Must be a specialist and
an advanced generalist
 Requires more, not
fewer, skills than many
of the more popular
fields of practice
 Must be able to interact
with all ages groups
 Must be an expert at
preserving selfdetermination
 Very complex work
 Requires the most
highly developed
intervention and family
work skills.
 Must be able to
integrate alternative
interventions
McInnes-Dittrich, pg. 21, 2009
Empathy:
“The act of perceiving, understanding,
experiencing, and responding to the
emotional state and ideas of another
person.”
Barker (1999)
 “Empathy, the accepting, confirming, and
understanding human echo evoked by
the self, is a psychological nutrient
without which human life, as we know
and cherish it, could not be sustained.”
Kohut (1978)
 “…entering the private perceptual world
of the other and becoming thoroughly at
home in it. It involves being sensitive,
moment to moment, to the changing felt
meanings which flow in this other person,
to the fear or rage or tenderness or
confusion or whatever that he or she are
experiencing. It means temporarily living
in the other’s life, moving about in it
delicately without making judgments.”
Rogers (1980)
Look Closer-See Me
“What do you see nurses, what do you see?
Are you thinking when you look at me
A crabbit old woman, not very wise.
Uncertain of habit with far away eyes
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice, “I do wish you’d
try.” Who seems not to notice the things that you
do. And forever is losing a stocking or shoe. Who
unresisting or not, lets you do as you will with
bathing and feeding, the long day to fill. Is that what
you’re thinking, is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurses, you’re not looking at me.
I’ll tell you who I am as I sit here so still.
As I move at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I’m a small child of ten with a father and mother.
Brothers and sisters who love one another.
A young girl of sixteen with wings on her feet.
Dreaming that soon a lover she’ll meet.
A bride soon at twenty-my heart gives a leap
Remembering the vows that I promised to keep.
At twenty-five now I have young of my own
Who need me to build a secure, happy home. A woman
at thirty, my young now grow fast.
Bound together with ties that should last.
At forty my young sons have grown and gone. But
my man’s beside me to see I don’t mourn.
At fifty once more babies play ‘round my knee
Again we know children, my loved ones and me.
Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead.
For my young are all rearing young of their own.
And I think of the years and the love that I’ve known.
I’m an old woman now and nature is cruel.
‘Tis her jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body, it crumbles, grace and vigor depart.
There is stone where I once had a heart.
But inside this old carcass a young girl still
dwells. And now and again my battered heart
swells. I remember the joys. I remember the
pain. And I’m loving and living life over
again. I think of the years, all too few, gone too
fast. And accept the stark fact that nothing
Can last. So open your eyes, nurses, open and
See Not a crabbit old woman. Look closer-see me”.
-Anonymous-
Some Tips to Remember:
 If a person who is visually impaired
needs to be guided, offer your arm-don’t
take their arm.
 If you have trouble understanding a
person with a speech impairment, ask
them to repeat themselves. Try not to
finish sentences for them or pretend you
understand them.
 Never shout at an older person,
assuming they cannot hear.
 Speak directly to the older person, not to
their family member, companion or caregiver.
 Don't ask wheelchair users to hold things for
you if you are transporting them. Respect
their personal space.
 Be sure to always knock before entering a
person’s room.
 Don’t talk “baby talk”.

Always ask a person in a wheel chair if it’s
ok for you to transport them before doing
so. It can be very disorienting to be
pushed without knowledge that it's
happening.

Never pull a wheelchair backwards.

Be sure not to obscure your face when
speaking to a person who is hearing
impaired.

Always respect the older person’s right to
dignity and respect.
Some Important Terms:
Autonomy:
“An individual’s sense of being capable of
independent action; the ability to provide
for one’s own needs.”
“Independent from the control of others.”
Barker 1999
Self-determination:
“An ethical principle in social work that
recognizes the rights and needs of
clients to be free to make their own
choices and decisions.”
Barker 1999
 Empowerment:
“…the process of helping individuals, families,
groups, and communities increase their
personal, interpersonal, socioeconomic, and
political strength and develop influence
toward improving their circumstances.”
Barker 1999
 Resilience:
“The ability to recover, spring back, or return to
previous circumstances after encountering
problems or stresses. This is a factor that
social workers consider in assessing their
clients and in developing prognoses and
treatment plans.”
Barker 1999
The Universal Declaration of Human
Rights
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.
They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act
towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 25.
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the
health and well-being of himself and of his family, including
food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social
services, and the right to security in the event of
unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or
other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
References

Barker, R. (1999). The Social Work Dictionary. Washington, DC: NASW
Press.

Butler, R. N. (1987). Ageism In G. Maddox (Ed.), The encyclopedia of
aging. New York: Springer.

Butler, R. N. (1969). Age-ism: another form of bigotry. The
Gerontologist, 9, 243-246.

Greene, R. R. (1986). Countertransference issues in social work with the
aged. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 9(3), 79-88.

Hooyman, N. R., & Kiyak, H. (2011). Social Gerontology: A multidisciplinary
perspective. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Kastenbaum, R. J. (2009). Death, Society, and Human Experience.
Boston, MA: Pearson.

Kohut, H., & Goldberg, A. (1978). The Psychology of Self: A
Casebook.
References continued.
 McInnes-Dittrich (2009). Social Work with Older Adults: A
Biopsychosocial Approach to Assessment and Intervention. Boston, MA:
Allyn & Bacon.
 Nordenfelt, L. (2009). Dignity in Care for Older Adults. Oxford, UK:
Wiley-Blackwell.
 Novak, M. (2009). Issues in Aging. Boston, MA: Pearson.
 Rogers, C. R. (1980). A Way of Being. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.