Working with Older Adults - Research Paper Example

social work Introduction Social work entails a variety of skills, which are specialised. They engage in activities that involve their skills in intervention of issues that require change and problems that need resolution. In the activities of offering services to the older adults, social workers get attached to these people, hence handling a number of referrals that pertain this range of complex work. Social work support is offered in certain situations such as family conflicts, palliative care, dementia or mental health, advocacy and protection from abuse. In addition to the support offered by social work support, they offer emotional and counselling support together with family and carer support. The Care Act of 2014 is a regulatory masterpiece that sets to redefine the social care direction in the near future. Correspondingly, this act encompasses the principle of well being, which is the motivational push of the Act. This statutory principle obligates the local authorities to practice well being in the process of performing the support and care responsibilities. This salient legislation defines the manner in which social workers ensure equality between the independence of older adults, their safety or well being and their care quality (Lloyd, 2014). In accordance with the Human Rights Code, age is any age above eighteen years. Discrimination, on the other hand according to the Code, is the deliberate act of denying something to someone. The claims of discrimination against older adults include social fields such as employment, access to shops, education, healthcare, restaurants, transit and social services. Likewise, discrimination too can be in housing, through denial to access condominium facilities, social housing, rental accommodation, residential care, motels as well as hotels. Furthermore, older adults face discriminations in contracts as well as registration in self-governing professions, trade unions and occupations. In the light of that, discrimination occurs to people at any age. People who are of a certain age group are more vulnerable in the society; hence, they are prone to discriminations of certain kinds. This age is 40 to 45, in employment discrimination. This is a contextual concept, considering the fact that older workers are above 45 years in age. If the average workplace age is 25 years, a 37-year-old applicant is most likely to be turned away from the job as he/she does not fit into the eligibility service or program of the workplace (Local Government Association, 2012). Ageism on the other hand represents the social mode of thinking, which is constructed based on stereotypes that are negative about the aging population, and as if, the society fancies everyone remaining young. In ageism, notwithstanding, the barriers are attitudinal, as the discrimination based on age involves the behavioural actions that concern treating a person disrespectfully because of their age. Owing to the above, the forms of discrimination that older adults face are neglect and abuse. Each year, over four percent of the cases reported by people over 65years involve abuse and neglect. The cases that concern self-neglects are possible posters of dilemma in ethics, and this makes them complex in nature. This dilemma focuses on the duty of care for the adults and promotion of individual autonomy (Platt, 2007). Therefore, social workers face a task in taking responsibilities on issues that concern individual neglect, as the social care for the elderly focuses on handling the neglect and actions of third parties. This makes it difficult to clarify the intervention and assessment techniques that social workers and healthcare providers use to handle self-neglect. The actions that contribute to self-neglect amongst older adults are diverse and illustrate how complex is the nature of the individuals’ decision-making capacity. This prompts the social caregivers to design a mechanism that provides exquisite guidance on the effective assessment, risk management, multiagency involvement to reduce the impacts of self-neglect and other age discrimination amongst the older adults. By all means, the legislation to improve the care given to older adults focuses on the care providers. The features of this legislation include the principle of well being, the assessment of older people, national eligibility criteria, review and planning of the care. The legislation further looks into the deferred payments, reforming the funding, the commissioning and shaping of the market (Bartlett, 2009). The legislation discusses the mechanisms for managing the service interruptions and failures by the care providers, while offering a clear market oversight. To emphasize, the statutory safeguarding according to the legislation is important in creating the awareness on the areas that the legislation covers. The legislation also provides guidance and advice on information concerning the provision of services, clearly outlining the responsibilities of the providers of care. Besides, this care provision includes the prevention of risk, through intermediate care. This opens up multiple opportunities for independent advocacy, the direct payments and the personal budgets as well as partnerships in cooperation and integration in provision of health care services (Keen & Bell, 2014). Certainly, the principle of well being in the Care Act of 2014 obligates the care providers to have significant awareness on the changes that must be implemented by the local authorities from April 2015 onwards into 2016. This legislation requires local authorities to promote wellbeing when performing their support and care responsibilities. This ensures that the person receiving these services must be enabled to participate in the decision-making at each stage of the care provision. This is a significant shift from the previous norm, which required the local authorities to perform certain services, making this a legal obligation. Nevertheless, the Care Act recognizes the fact that the needs of everyone differ and are personal. This implies that the judgment of wellbeing solely lies with the individual, and their interpretation of well being. The legislation further addresses the reality of multiple models of support and care that come up all the time, hence embracing the need for flexibility and innovation in support and care. This is contrary to the previous legislation that primarily focused on the traditional designs and models of domiciliary and residential care (Hudson & Henwood, 2008). According to this legislation, therefore, well being is explained as mental, emotional and physical uprightness, with respect concerning personal dignity. This further means the protection against neglect and abuse, by ensuring total participation in trainings, recreation, education or work. The legislation explains well being as the personal control by an individual over his/her daily life, with emphasis on social and economic well being. Besides, the well-being involves relationships with family, domestic partners and the personality (Housing 21 & Counsel & Care, 2015). Notably, the risk amongst the adult service users and careers involves the use of technology, which include the personal alarms that manage falls and enables the older adults to seek help. The other risk that these groups encounter involves the life re- assessments and personal complex adjustments that arise from ageing and adaptation of ageing. The risks of individual assessment include the health risks that arise from neglect and abuse from other people. In addition to the risks (Raynes, Clark & Beecham, 2006), the barriers that involve the lack of knowledge on where and how to report the abuse poses a major risk to the care users, as they doubt being taken seriously. In essence, a number of ways exist, in which the older adults can deal with the problems that these risks pose. Such mechanisms include the increased professional awareness on the part of professional caregivers. The caregivers should embark on educational roles to give the care users information on their rights and responsibilities. The risk that accompanies the lack of knowledge amounts to ignorance and education is the best solution of ignorance. In addition to the educational role to enlighten the older adults on their rights, the law should establish distinct avenues that enable the cases of abuse and neglect to be reported and addressed (Scourfield P, 2007). Such institutions should also be irrational in judging the cases reported by the possible victims of the above discriminatory actions and focus on dealing with the perpetrators of these actions (Harrop, Jopling & contributors, 2009). In addition to that, the caregivers should try to be accessible to the elderly at all time, hence develop a close contact that enables the victims to speak out and address their discrimination. On the other hand, the risks that the caregivers face relate to the difficulties that this group encounters in balancing their duties to offer care and support with the people’s rights to take risks. In the case of technological backdrop, the caregivers themselves may lack the knowledge to operate the gadgets that are desirable to the older adults, hence spending more time trying to convince the users to adopt new styles (Forder & Fernández, 2009). In addition, the caregivers face risk in failing to satisfy the expectation of the users. Equally important, the other risks that the caregivers face are the organizational risk. Misappropriate and disproportionate emphasis on protection of the organizations from the adverse consequences of risk potentially threatens to undermine the capacity that is necessary in the identification of safeguarding issues. This enables positive risk taking approach. Despite this, balancing the safeguarding issues with the risk is a challenge as it is difficult to identify and deal with the hidden risks. To point out, personalization is a reflector of the values of social work, the respect for individuals and the inborn self-determination to carry out social work (Filinson, McCreadie, Askham & Mathew, 2008). The role of social workers is central in the provision and development of personalized services for the achievements of better outcomes. With personalization, care users are able to determine their own support, but the continued support from social workers is important in management of benefits and risks, and in the building of self-determination (Ware, 2009). In that effect, a majority of social workers accept that personalization transforms the outlook of social work, as it involves prevention and early intervention. Hence, personalization involves an entirely different way of thinking about support and care. This highlights the individual aspirations, preferences and strengths before including these social work users at the centre of identifying their own needs. Consequently, the impact of personalization and outcome based approaches in offering care and support to the elderly service planning is an articulate way to facilitate a positive approach to risk and risk taking with the users of social service (Clarke , Seymour , Welton, Sanders & Gott , 2006). The early implementation of the service provider co production and personalization presented the opportunities available for service users to have entire control of their own goals. This is against the traditional approaches to care management, which did not focus on discussing personalization as a positive risk taking approach. Despite the fact that personalization is a positive approach towards risk and risk taking, numerous tensions accompany the surrounding risk of personalization. The tensions in personalization as a key risk approach include competing priorities and agendas for social work practitioners. This makes it difficult for the staff to balance between the control and choice of service users. Personalization advocates for maximum choice and control by the care users, whereas the social workers have the obligation to respond to their duty of care. In the meantime, the risk of over regulation arises when ensuring safeguarding and protection amongst the older adults. This trend undermines the potential opportunities that the service users have to manage their risks themselves (Dickson, 2009). Therefore, the uncertainty arises when the social workers are unsure on their responsibilities and control in response to observing the safety of the service users. In the provision of adult services, the social workers play a major role in the delivery of personalized services for the achievement of better outcomes amongst the adults who need protection, support and services. The social workers, therefore, ensure that services are personalised by safeguarding the human rights of the older adults. This is through enabling them to access practical support and services; working through conflict by offering, the older people support to manage safety and risk. The personalization builds professional relationships and empowers the people.(Carruthers & Ormondroyd , 2009). In general, personalization involves working together with other professionals with the aim to achieve best outcomes for people. Generally, social workers have a key role in implementing the Equality Act of 2010 that outlines the objectives of anti discriminatory practices. This enables the service users to enjoy the equality in the society, in response to the information collected about the use of social work. According to the Equality Act, the previous laws against discrimination were complex and inconsistent. This Act looks at the protected characteristics that are the major reasons why other people are treated with discrimination. These are age, disability, race, sexual orientation, gender, pregnancy, religious beliefs and marital status. Particularly, the discrimination of older adults is either direct or indirect (Rosowsky, 2010). Direct discrimination of older adults involves treating them less favourably because of their age characteristic, whereas indirect discrimination is the act of putting the older adults in a particular disadvantage condition (Brindle, 2009). The discrimination of age is a possible factor if there exists differences in the local authority activity for the age group. Despite this, there may be local reasons that indicate variations in authority activity. As a matter of fact, the factors that make it difficult to identify discrimination are numerous, including the nature of discrimination, the practitioners innate ageism, the general acceptance by the older people that discrimination is a norm, and the difficulty encountered in assessing whether the decisions that professionals make is evidence based (Clarke & Warren, 2007). However, the limits of discrimination depend on the applicability or availability of a particular practice that show the objective of justification. In the UK, for instance, 21million citizens are aged above 50years. Approximately 10 million people are above 65 years while 1.3million are above 85 years. Of these figures, approximately3.7million older adults live alone, with the older men less than their female counterparts do. The majority of older people who are living with disabilities in the UK are women, or an illness that is limiting long standing (Swinkel & Mitchell, 2008). The difficulties that the older people encounter are mostly sensory malfunction, such as poor eyesight and hearing. Apart from that, the older adults have difficulties in their mobility. As they experience inability to perform their activities of daily living. Social workers, therefore, play a critical role in the provision of these services to the neglected and abused older adults. The activities that the social workers perform include ensuring that such services as toileting, bathing, dressing and mobility (Centre for Policy on Ageing, 2009) are performed with precision and in the liking of the older adults. Besides, they ensure that plans are underway to fulfil the instrumental daily living activities such as housework, laundry, cooking, shopping amongst other domestic tasks. The evidence based on the measurement of the activities of daily living defines the approaches towards determining disabilities. For these reasons, in relation to disability, the older age refers to the very old as well as the young old. The entering old age is a definition of old age that is socially constructed from the ages of 50 years or from the retirement ages of 65 and 60 years for men and women respectively. This old age bracket is active as well as independent. In the transitional phase of old age, the older adults transform from the active healthy life into frailty. This is an occurrence between 70 and 80 years. Finally, the frail older adults are individuals who are most vulnerable of the old age category, as they experience multiple health complications that include dementia or stroke. These people need social care the most, as they experience most neglect and abuse. Definitely, with the increase in the number of people living into the older age, there is an increase in demand for social workers (Bowling & Grundy, 2009). Social workers support the lives of older adults, by helping them to maintain their lifestyle regardless of their disabilities and their poor health that inhibits them from living a comfortable life. The social workers should desist from classifying the older people as a single group, as they are also humans with varying resources and needs. The experience that the elderly share in ageing should not be a deterrent to the provision of quality support and care. Furthermore, the independence of older adults is an important issue in the establishment of economic and financial discrimination of these people. The personal budget for the older people improves the outcomes of financial discrimination by delivering better value for money. The local authorities should offer a personal budget as part of the support and care plans (Townsend, 2006). This also applies to the caregivers. The personal budget makes it clear how much money is available to the older adult’s disposal (Bowcott, 2009). With personal budgets, the person knows the amount of money that the local authorities pay. This enables the financial independence of the elderly, as they are capable of managing their money through direct payment. It is the obligation of local authorities to provide the social workers with the information in specific direct payments. They should expand on the meaning of direct payment, the operations of the payments and the criteria for the eligibility of the payment scheme (Beresford & Davis , 2008). The local authorities should further explain the responsibilities of the managers of direct payment accounts belonging to the old vulnerable adults. The local authorities should consider the mechanisms that enable people to widen their choices. In accordance with the Care Act, the independent advocacy is dependent on a range of people and situations. The local authorities have the mandate to organize an independent advocate for the older adults with difficulties in involvement in support and care assessment. Advocacy is responsible for the supporting the older adults’ support process and care. This involves the support to understand information, with the expression to their wishes and needs. This advocacy enables people to secure their rights and obtain the support and care they decide while representing their personal interests. Building a confident and safe future supports the developments in social works. As can be seen, the continued training and concerned professional development all support the growth of social work (Snell, 2007). In addition to these, the supervision, frontline management and general public understanding increase the relevance of the social work. For the reform program, a national carers program, a practice license and a College of social work all cater for the growing numbers of ageing population (Age Concern England, 2007). The above arguments, largely, focus on the personalized view of the methods that social workers use in ensuring the safety, well being and independence of the older adults. For interpersonal support and social work, the development of information and the services concerning advice and advocacy. These services include those for people with their individual social core programs. Social work also promotes the rights of people as it plays a crucial role in the development of community work by promoting inclusion. For instance, in the inclusion of the people with learning disabilities, social workers also unite the older adults with their families and communities (Blackman , 2007). Through termination of abusive relationships, social workers create inclusive, safe and healthy environments for the older adults. Conclusion Given these points, for the social workers to achieve the best outcomes, they have to work together with their care users. The retention of independence by the care users is achieved through the effective relations between the care users and their families. Essentially, the role of social workers in the older adults’ service teams is rewarding despite its complexity and diversity. In conclusion, the complexity is addressed through the effective care planning and the individual assessment to determine the preferences of the older adults. Bibliography Age Concern England 2007. Age of equality? — outlawing age discrimination beyond the workplace, London: Age Concern England. Bartlett J 2009. At your service: navigating the future market in health and social care, London:Demos Beresford P and Davis R 2008. Users at the core, Community Care (1718, 17 April 2008) : 14‐16 Blackman N; Respond 2007. People with learning disabilities ‐ an ageing population Bowcott O 2009. 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