Older people are the biggest service user group for social workers and an increasing proportion of the population. In this refreshingly positive and practical textbook, Rory Lynch draws on years of practice and teaching experience to show how to achieve best social work practice with older adults. He takes a person-centred approach, which fosters respect by valuing the fact that elderly people have more lived experience than others.
Exploring the key theoretical approaches and methods of intervention, this book helps social workers to identify, understand and facilitate their service users' wishes for well-being and a fulfilling older age. Chapters are practice-driven, containing case studies drawn from a range of care settings, reflective questions and exercises.
Mapping directly onto the key modules on the social work degree, this is essential reading for all student social workers, especially as they prepare to go on their practice placement. It is also valuable reading for qualified social workers.
Rory Lynch is Lecturer in Social Work at Robert Gordon University.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
Historical Context, Law and Policy
Values and Ethics
Skills in Working with Older People
Community Care
Mental Health and Well-being
Dementia
Assessment and Intervention
Gerontology
Care Settings for Older People
Being a Research-practitioner
Conclusion
About the Author :
Rory Lynch is a lecturer in social work at Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. He comes from St. Johnston, County Donegal in the Irish Republic and has lived and worked in Aberdeen for forty years. During this time he has developed and worked in a range of agencies from single homelessness, substance misuse and latterly mental health services. He has published on a variety of themes related to older people including sociology and social work; need, risk and protection and social policy for social work within a Scottish perspective.
Rory currently teaches within the School of Applied Social Studies with a specific remit for coordinating the teaching on Older People and Social Work across a range of courses but specifically on undergraduate courses. He also teaches Human Growth and Behaviour within the university on undergraduate and distance learning courses and has a specific interest in Object Relations. He is currently in the process of developing a user-friendly text on this subject for social work students.
Review :
This important book attaches real value to working with older people, challenging ageist practice and encouraging a skilled approach in social work students and practitioners.
Insightful, reflective, theoretically sound, and practically feasible. Rory Lynch’s polished attempt at the challenging topic of social work practice with older people is indeed an important update on the current plethora of unheralded and less readable practice guides. His is destined to get much mileage in both the local and international practice arena.
