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Week 11: Interventions With the Elderly/Aging

As our mortality rates decline and our medical treatment improves, life expectancy has risen significantly over the last two decades. Across the globe the aging population has increased and thus the need for services to meet this group’s needs has expanded. Holosko, Skinner, Patterson, and Brisebois (2013) provide a list of knowledge areas you should become familiar with if working with the elderly, including the biopsychosocial holistic approach, formal and informal support systems, and grief and loss, to name just a few. In this week’s content we will focus on the use of spirituality and life reviews as interventions to address some of these issues.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

• Identify interventions for the elderly/aging
• Analyze spiritually based interventions for the elderly/aging

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Required Readings

Holosko, M. J., Skinner, J. F., Patterson, C. A., & Brisebois, K. (2013). Intervention with the elderly. In M. J. Holosko, C. N. Dulmus, & K. M. Sowers (Eds.),
Social work practice with individuals and families: Evidence-informed assessments and interventions (pp. 197–235). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Sokolec, J. (2016). The Meaning of ‘Place’ to Older Adults.
Clinical Social Work Journal, 44(2), 160-169. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Retrieved from Walden Library databases.

Optional Resources

Use this link to access the MSW home page, which provides resources for your social work program.

Discussion: Biopsychosocial Holistic Approach

The assessment and incorporation of a client’s spirituality has become increasingly common in the field of social work. While historically social workers were trained to avoid discussions centered on religion, we now know that spirituality encompasses many ways of believing. “The Society for Spirituality and Social Work is a network of social workers and other helping professionals dedicated to spiritually sensitive practice and education” (Society for Spirituality and Social Work, n.d.). Addressing a client’s spirituality allows for a biopsychosocial holistic approach that can aid in the process of understanding illness, disability, and end-of-life issues.

For this Discussion, review the required resources and locate one scholarly article addressing spirituality with the elderly.

By Day 3

Post your explanation of the significance of addressing spirituality with the elderly. Identify a spiritually based intervention for this population. Describe the effectiveness of the use of spirituality with the elderly as found in the literature. Then, describe your own thoughts on the use of spirituality in an intervention.

Support your posts with specific references to the Learning Resources. Be sure to provide full APA citations for your references.