Description
Week 6: Biological Aspects of Later Adulthood
In 2011, the World Health Organization stated:
The world is on the brink of a demographic milestone. Since the beginning of recorded history, young children have outnumbered their elders. In about five years time, however, the number of people aged 65 or older will outnumber children under age 5. (p. 2)
As the world’s population ages, an understanding of issues and challenges related to aging is of paramount importance for individuals working in the helping professions. This week, you begin to explore the life-span phase Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman (2016) title “later adulthood.” You explore the biological changes aging individuals experience and consider how the environment might accelerate or decelerate the aging process. You also consider a topic of growing significance for social workers—end-of-life care.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Apply knowledge of aging to social work practice
- Analyze the impact of the environment on aging
- Evaluate strategies for applying knowledge of aging to social work practice
- Analyze the role of social work practice in end-of-life care
Discussion: The Aging Process
As individuals grow older, they experience biological changes, but how they experience these changes varies considerably. Senescence, or the process of aging, “affects different people, and various parts of the body, at different rates” (Zastrow & Kirst-Ashman, 2016, p. 658).
What factors affect the aging process? Why do some individuals appear to age faster than others? In this Discussion you address these questions and consider how, you, as a social worker, might apply your understanding of the aging process to your work with older clients.
To prepare for this Discussion, read “Working With the Aging: The Case of Francine” in Social Work Case Studies: Foundation Year.
Post a Discussion in which you:
- Apply your understanding of the aging process to Francine’s case. How might Francine’s environment have influenced her aging process? How might you, as Francine’s social worker, apply your knowledge of the aging process to her case?
- Identify an additional strategy you might use to apply your knowledge of the aging process to social work practice with older clients in general. Explain why you would use the strategy.
Must include 2 APA peer reviewed references including reference supplied
Reference
Plummer, S. -B., Makris, S., & Brocksen, S. M. (Eds.). (2014). Social work case studies: Foundation year. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].
- “Working With the Aging: The Case of Francine” (pp. 39–41)
or transmitted without publisher’s prior permission. Violators will be prosecuted.
Working With the Aging: The Case of Francine
Francine is a 70-year-old, Irish Catholic female. She worked for 40 years as a librarian in an institution of higher education and retired at age
65. Francine has lived alone for the past year, after her partner, Joan, died of cancer. Joan and Francine had been together for 30 years, and while
Francine personally identifies as a lesbian, she never came out to her family or to her colleagues. When speaking to all but her closest
confidantes, Francine referred to Joan as her “best friend” or her “roommate.” Francine’s bereavement was therefore complicated because she
did not feel she could discuss the true nature of her partnership with Joan. She felt that there was little recognition from her family, and even
some of her close associates, of the impact and meaning of Joan’s death to Francine. There is a history of alcohol abuse in Francine’s family, and
Francine abused alcohol from late adolescence into her mid-30s. However, Francine has been in recovery for several decades. Francine has no
known sexual abuse history and no criminal history.
Francine sought counseling with me for several reasons, including an ongoing depressed mood, a lack of pleasure or enjoyment in her life,
and loneliness and isolation since Joan’s death. She also reported that she had begun to drink again and that while her drinking was not yet at the
level it had been earlier in her life, she was concerned that she could return to a dependence upon alcohol. Francine came to counseling with
several considerable strengths, including a capacity to form intimate relationships, a successful work history, a history of having maintained her
sobriety in the past for many years, as well as insight into the factors that had contributed to her current difficulties.
During our initial meetings, Francine stated that her goals were to feel less depressed, to reduce or stop drinking, and to feel less isolated. In
order to ensure that no medical issues were contributing to her depression symptoms, I referred Francine to her primary care physician for an
evaluation. Francine’s physician
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