Social work with the elderly--current orientation and strategies

Abstract

Social work for the elderly in a demographical ageing society is not justified per se, but has to prove its utility under the altering social conditions of the changing age-structure. In the field of practice, this has led to an increasing need for professional orientation and to searching for profiles of performance with greater attraction. As manifold as the target groups are the spectra of social work for the elderly is also manifold in its content and methods. Nevertheless, we are able to recognize some general orientations and strategies, which are conceptual adaptions from social work in general, cultural work and educational work--combined with fundamental supplies of social gerontological knowledge. In this sense, social work, for the elderly--in its most advanced realms--should be integrated into an ageing-policy concept, which is of relevance for the society as a whole.