Aging Services Work: Discrimination and Oppression Among the Elderly Essay

Introduction

Aging services work with social workers who work with families, individuals, support providers, and families to ensure that aging individuals are served, and have assessed to services and support they need. Social work professional is so much dedicated to the self-realization and welfare of all people. Social work understands the power and needs to address environmental and social conditions which impact the lives of people. However social work entails social justice that is regarded as a core social work value. It is also regarded as fairness in terms of opportunities and wealth distribution, privilege in society and in resource distribution. The primary role of social work as a profession and science is to ensure that there is the social participation of every individual at all level of society that includes micro, macro and mezzo levels. Social work is thus connected not just among families and individuals but with society and communities. It also involves effort that helps confront oppression and discrimination. The field of practice and special population group that this essay will explain is aging services where the special population group or the field of practice will basically be on issues of discrimination and oppression.

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Exploring Aging Services and Discrimination/Oppression Issues

Discrimination and oppression among the elderly have been a social welfare issue and has developed into a criminal justice concern as an abuse of the elderly people. This problems faced by the client includes mistreatment that can be termed as oppression which includes financial, psychological or emotional, or other mistreat which result to pain, injury or suffering . The client also experiences neglect from family members.

Interventions for Addressing Discrimination and Oppression Among the Elderly

Any successful intervention on discrimination and oppression of elderly people will be a consideration of an individual lived experience. This intervention goes in hand with anti-discriminatory and anti-oppressive practices where it focuses on addressing issues of equitable power. The intervention may include aging services recognizing diversity and applying anti-oppressive and anti-discriminatory principles. Advancing of human rights and promoting economic well being and social justice among the elderly. The social workers should apply critical analysis and reflection that provides and informs professional decision-making rationale. The aging services ought to use authority and judgment to intervene with communities, families, and individuals in order to prevent any harm, abuse or neglect or provide support to the elderly people. The services also ought to recommend the client to a nursing care facility.

Effective Approaches in Elderly Services and Social Work

The elderly services ought to take responsibility for professional development and learning of others through mentoring, supervision, research, management and leadership. Communication is also a key intervention that will help address oppression issue among the elderly where the focus of verbal and nonverbal does consider dichotomy which may exist between documentation range and if it is a true reflection of older people's needs. Oppression of the elderly can also be resolved where the aging services may conduct an assessment which may take various forms such as a clear indication on the way in which the practitioner should progress the information within action review and planning and a clear idea on what the assessment relates to and will achieve. (Lynch 38).

Human Diversity in the Context of Oppression and Discrimination

The human diversity that the research will discuss is issues of oppression and discrimination. Age prejudice is in existence and is regarded as a multifaceted issue. Where individuals have multiple and contradictory attitudes to older people. Ageism is tied to emphasize that culture places on mobility, speed, and changes in the workforce. This is where the society perceives older people as a burden and not competitive in the society. Ageism is also institutionalized and is pervasive and is regarded to be found even with agencies and people who help the older people. (Azulai 44).

The report indicates that opportunities of going into a hospice decline with age. A lot of barriers and difficulties faced by older people are consequences of age discrimination that affects the way support services or aging services are designed without older people's needs reference. There is a need for a better end of life care for the elderly to provide specialist palliative care and more funding for palliative and hospice care. (Dobson 1288.2).

Micro Practice for Empowerment and Support

Efforts that would galvanize social action against elder discrimination and oppression abuse at the macro level will involve developing policy and initiative and legislation in the country. Macro-level does involve cohesion in society. It helps to necessitate linking of measures that are taken with activities at the national level. The task of social workers at this level is to contribute towards the transformation of policies and attitudes that will help resolve issues of discrimination and oppression according to the needs of elder people

Mezzo level implies cohesion in a given community. Its practice aims at a given group of people. It focuses on cultural change or institution and ensures that the challenges and needs of a client or an individual are addressed and understood in tandem with social larger issues. In order to solve the issue of discrimination and oppression at this level, there is a need for community organizing, social work organization management or cultural change.

Micro practice, in this case, the social worker engages with families and individuals in solving problems. Micro practice in elderly people will improve their capacities and capabilities and thus enable them to confront their difficulties. In order to improve the collaboration quality, there is a need for social workers to alert us to the important resources and present them in a way that they become obvious. (Mali 23-40). The intervention of this micro-practices may involve helping the elderly in assessing appropriate health care, housing, and social services.

Conclusion

A lot of older people faces life difficulties in commercial large care services. However, this is where social work comes into its own with the ability and skills to work with people to access their needs within the same factor affecting individuals. The task also involves handling the sense of being overlooked or discrimination which is most common among the older people. Elderly service social workers are thus powerful advocates with values, skills, and knowledge to change their lives. Social workers help families, individuals, and communities in building their strengths and unlocking their potential example, through supporting elderly people to start volunteering. An excellent social worker of older people requires to be visible and valued. They are also skilled in planning and assessing care needs from a perspective that can be termed as holistic in providing teams of professional leadership that works around older people. They are also required to offer calm support in the event of a crisis that is as a result of the relationship, discrimination or oppression. (Walker).

Works Cited

Lynch, Rory. Social Work Practice With Older People. London: Sage Publishers, 2014. Print.

Azulai, Anna. "Ageism And Future Cohorts Of Elderly: Implications For Social Work." Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics 11.2 (2014): 44. Print.

Dobson, Roger. "Age Discrimination Denies Elderly People A "Dignified Death"." BMJ 330.7503 (2005): 1288.2. Web. 13 July 2018.

Mali, Jana. "Social Work With Older People: The Neglected Field Of Social Work." Dialogue in Praxis: A Social Work International Journal 1.1 (2016): 23-40. Print.

Walker, Bernald. "What Does Excellent Social Work With Older People Look Like?." the Guardian. N.p., 2015. Web. 13 July 2018.