Reference no: EM132264248
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.
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 did not find any medical cause of her symptoms, diagnosing Francine with moderate clinical depression and recommending that Francine begin a course of antidepressant medication. Francine was reluctant to take medication and first wanted to try a course of counseling.
In order to help Francine meet her goal of reducing her depression symptoms, I employed a technique called behavioral activation (BA), which is drawn from principles of cognitive behavioral therapy and helps to reengage people in pleasant physical, social, and recreational activities. We began with a small initial goal of having Francine dedicate at least 5 minutes of each day to an activity she found pleasant or rewarding. Over the following weeks, we increased the time. Francine's treatment progress was monitored through weekly completion of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) in order to determine whether or not her depressive symptoms were improving.
I helped Francine address her drinking by reconnecting her with effective coping strategies she had used in the past to achieve and maintain her sobriety. These included identifying triggers for the urge to drink and exploring her motivations for both continuing to drink and for stopping her use of alcohol. Francine began attending regular meetings of Alcoholics AnonymousTM(AA) and found several meetings that were specifically for older women and for lesbians. In addition, Francine spoke regularly with a sponsor who helped her to remain abstinent during particularly stressful moments during her reengagement in sobriety.
Finally, in order to address Francine's goal of feeling less lonely and isolated, we explored potential avenues to increase her social networks. In addition to spending time with her family, friends, and her AA sponsor, Francine began to visit the local lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT), center for the first time in her life and attended a support group for women who had lost their partners. Francine also began spending time at her local senior center and went there at least three times a week for exercise classes, other recreational activities, and lunch. She also began to do volunteer work at her local library once a week.
Over several months of counseling, Francine stopped drinking; significantly increased her daily involvement in pleasant and rewarding activities, including social and recreational activities; and reported feeling less lonely, despite still missing her partner a great deal. Francine's scores on the PHQ-9 gradually decreased over time, and after 16 weeks of counseling, Francine reported that she no longer felt she needed the session to move on with her life. In addition, Francine visited her primary care physician, who found upon evaluation that her depression had lifted considerably and that an antidepressant was no longer indicated. By the end of counseling, Francine's focused work on identifying her depression symptoms and her triggers for drinking equipped
Bosma, H., Johnston, M., Cadell, S., Wainwright, W., Abernethy, N., Feron, A., & ... Nelson, F. (2010). Creating social work competencies for practice in hospice palliative care. Palliative Medicine, 24(1), 79-87.
Note: You will access this article from the Walden Library databases.
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.
Read a selection of your colleagues' posts.
Respond to at least two colleague's post in one of the following ways:
From a strength's perspective, critique your colleague's approach to addressing Francine's case. Provide support for your critique.
Critique your colleague's strategy for applying knowledge of the aging process to work with older clients. Discuss how cultural, ethnic, and societal influences might affect the application of this strategy.
Assignment: End-of-Life Care and Social Work Practice
The death of an elderly individual may occur in a variety of settings and circumstances. For example, an individual may die painlessly at home surrounded by the support of many loved ones, or an individual may suffer severe pain for months before dying in a health facility with little social support. In addition, it is possible that many health and helping professionals may interact with the dying person and his or her family.
For this Assignment, you consider a social worker's role in end-of-life care. In addition to reading this week's resources, conduct your own research and obtain at least one additional journal article that addresses how a social worker might support clients as they plan end-of-life care.
Submit a 2- to 4-page paper that analyzes the role of the social worker in helping to plan end-of-life care. Include possible consideration of palliative care, euthanasia, hospice care, the living will and advanced directives, and other factors. Research and cite at least one journal article to support your analysis.