Community Engagement: Addressing the Needs of Elderly and Disabled Individuals

This article discusses the impact of social work placement on elderly and disabled individuals, the needs addressed during the placement, theoretical understanding of community engagement, and skills developed through the placement.

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COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Student name
Professor’s name
Course
Institution
State
Date

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Community Engagement
Introduction
This noble idea of the social work placement has greatly impacted the targeted
individuals as well as their places of locality. The usually neglected elderly members of the
society, as well as the less fortunate in the line of disabilities, have been made feel appreciated
by these social forums serving the purpose of boosting their self-esteem and enhancing their
general view of life. This isolation has rendered most of them hopeless as there are usually no
close family members round about them to cater for their immediate needs as well as their health
care (Baldus, Voorhees, Calantone, 2015, p.980). This has not been a walk in the park especially
for the bedridden senior citizens whose health keeps on deteriorating every day with some even
exposed to the unmentionable medical condition normally known as bed sores or ulcers.
This, however, has been effectively and efficiently addressed by this elaborate social
placement as the involved social workers roll out their voluntary services in the most appropriate
ways possible for their good as well as the good of the numerous clients. Having been placed on
the Northside, several support services were placed at my disposal with regard to the target client
I was to attend to. Several communities in this part of Australia needed our comprehensive
voluntary services with the sole purpose of bettering their lives and making them feel loved and
appreciated. The organization dealt with the people on wheelchair, old people who could not
walk by themselves as well as the mentally ill who had speech problems. Several activities were
involved in the entire social forum that greatly affected the highly esteemed clientele positively.
An elaborate plan had been put in place that revolved around the idea of picking the clients from

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their homes in the organization’s buses and ferrying them to the venues where these diverse
activities were carried out (Barrett, Farr, Wilson, 2015, p.200).
Discussion
Needs addressed during the placement
The clientele as mentioned earlier had several needs that required thorough and elaborate
addressing with the purpose of improving their lives as well as sorting out their medical
conditions. Some of these elderly members of this Northern side of Australia could not walk on
their own as the majority had varying medical problems. Some had joint issues while others had
bone defects in their legs which served the purpose of explaining their extreme difficulties in
walking. With these highly esteemed members of the organization, we exposed them to light
physical activities that applied pressure on their stiff muscles which really helped them in a huge
way. This, of course, was with the company of several medical practitioners who made sure that
these light activities were not quite extreme. The venue that was preferred and used for these
physical exercises was Palm Beach simply because it is usually quite expansive and has a
frequent breeze that eased the mild exhaustion of these senior citizens (Batterham, Buchbinder,
Beauchamp, et al, 2014, p.690).
Most of the clients could not speak clearly as they had speech issues. This was quite
extreme as the team could not make out what was being said by these elderly members at all
which resulted in the use of gestures in most scenarios. This trying problem drove the team
towards exposing the clientele to speech classes so as to try and develop their speech to the level
of their being able to communicate effectively. The clients on wheelchairs were taken to the
Karaoke at Chatswood RSL with the intent and purpose of breaking the extreme monotonous
kind of a lifestyle that they had been exposed to. This effort was greatly appreciated by them and

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greatly boosted their self-esteem. Some clients also needed help in eating and drinking as there
was no effective coordination within the varying parts of their body with the hands being greatly
affected. These clients’ outing was at Wollongong Diggers Club where they were exposed to a
number of diverse activities so as to boost their self-esteem as well as developing the
coordination of their already worn out muscles (Beatley, 2016, p.146).
A theoretical way of understanding community engagement issues
There were quite elaborate and deep engagements as cited earlier on that served the
purpose of addressing the varying needs and issues revolving around the highly esteemed
clientele. This resulted to the incorporation and efficient use of the hierarchy of needs theory that
acted as a guideline in the organization’s quest of unraveling and revealing the most extreme
needs that the better part of the clientele required (Ngo, Sherbourne, Chung, 2016, p.1835). This
served the purpose of creating a path that the social workers would effortlessly use in the attempt
of addressing those needs brought to light by this appropriate theory. The needs as presented by
this able theorem revolved around the basic needs, safety issues as well as the as the need for
belonging and self-esteem issues. This elaborate realization necessitated elaborate plans that
were put in place and established by the team with the idea of addressing the varying needs of
the entire clientele in the most appropriate way possible (Butler, 2015, p.70).
Possible connections between the numerous activities conducted during the entire
placement were inevitable. Some activities were intertwined as they served the purpose of
addressing several similar needs as brought to light by the involved clients. For instance, the
activity that revolved around the karaoke event served the general and overall idea of dealing
with the elaborate needs of the elderly members who were in wheelchairs and also the ones who
had speech development issues. This elaborate and noble idea of having two clientele groups

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housed together in a similar set up greatly boosted their morale and their self-esteem was
elevated just because of the extreme interaction that ensued in this particular forum. The physical
activities also served the purpose of connecting and bringing together two groups of the clients
whose needs could be addressed together. The involved members included the elderly persons
who had difficulties in walking as well as the ones who needed help while eating and drinking.
The light physical activity involved served the purpose of developing muscle strength in the
attempt of addressing these two varying needs of the highly esteemed clientele (Case, Zeglen,
2018, p.200).
Suggestions for improving community engagement in the placement
organization
The entire community engagement forum was conducted effectively by the placement
organization as tremendous results were registered at the end of the whole exercise. However
elaborate and profound improvements should be forthcoming with the purpose of achieving
extremely better and most encouraging results in other potential forums of the future. Firstly, the
organization should encourage active and representative participation with the overall idea of
creating a conducive ground where the involved individuals in the name of the clients should be
endowed with the ability and capability of influencing the decisions that affect their lives. With
the case of the extremely old members of any given community or society, their well-abled
guardians who presumably can be their children or even spouses can act as their potential
representatives airing out their grievances (Curtis, Ross, Marshall, et al, 2014, p.180).
The organization should also work towards making sure that the community members are
well aware of what the underlying issues are and possibly accompany that with elaborate

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alternative courses of action. This will result in their being fully equipped with the right tact and
skills to be effectively and efficiently employed in the wake of any presumable challenge in their
respective societies. The leadership capacity of the leaders within the respective capacities
should also be a point to be thoroughly considered (Zielinski, Hicks, Lenton, et al, 2015, p.157).
These leaders will act as the representatives of this organization in its absentia submitting reports
about the involved community to it on regular basis with regard to the already established
projects within their respective areas of jurisdiction. For instance, as far as the recent project is
concerned that has to do with the efficient addressing of the various needs of the elderly
members of the Northern State of Australia, the organization should lias with the leadership of
that particular set up with the general purpose of making sure that the elaborate efforts instituted
by the social workers should not go down the drain. If anything other elaborate efforts should be
established to further that good work done by the highly esteemed social workers (Gonzalez,
Fleisher, Washington, et al, 2015, p.100).
The impact of the placement on the student’s values, assumptions, and attitudes
The entire placement exercise served the purpose of bringing to light another perspective
of life with regard to the involved social worker who in this case is a student. Old age as many of
the social workers presumed is no joke especially if the involved individuals did not have an
elaborate retirement plan. The better part of the clientele that the team served had an elaborate
insecurity with regard to their areas of finance with most of them relying on their neighbors to
meet their normal basic needs. This greatly disturbed the better part of the team whose result is to
establish an elaborate well-founded savings plan that will facilitate their long expected future.
The inhuman character that is normally associated with the majority of the students was

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effectively diminished as these able workers addressed the most extreme needs of the involved
clientele (Habibi, Laroche, Richard, 2014, p.155).
The eventuality of this placement with regard to the general overall values of the students
was quite amazing. High levels of integrity, honesty, and love among other values were the end
result of the entire placement program as they were greatly instilled in all the involved students.
This, on a deeper length, served the purpose of developing a sense of social responsibility round
about the students’ walks of life (O’Mara-Eves, Brunton, Oliver, 2015, p.129). The normal and
usual assumptions with regard to the old age were at length diminished as no one was expecting
such extreme cases in the dawn of the 21st century. This shocking revelation prompted some of
the students who had not checked on their elderly family members to make elaborate plans of
doing so once the placement exercise was over. This brought to light the element of the already
developed instance of social responsibility that had already been instilled in the students in the
course of the entire placement (Hollebeek, Juric, Tang, 2017, p.215).
The principle of reciprocity is of great significance to whichever social dispensation and
especially to elaborate community engagement. This is because the propelling factor towards any
kind gesture or act is what really matters and counts in the long run. The recipients of whichever
form of kind gesture will not only appreciate the involved kind act but will also take into
elaborate consideration the genuineness of the act as well as the hidden motive or agenda. The
extreme activities that were conducted by the social workers had to be propelled by a kind heart
as they were not that easy. This later resulted in extensive satisfaction and fulfillment both to the
social worker as well as the elderly members. Elaborate use of this principle enhances effective
and efficient results (Kolopack, Parsons, Lavery, 2015, p.115).

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The skills developed through the placement
The entire placement program incorporated various platforms that enhanced and
facilitated the birthing of numerous skills amongst the social workers that were directly involved.
Effective time management was one such skill that was developed in the placement exercise.
This was made possible by the extreme and quite delicate activities conducted that required to be
rolled into play within a given period of time with the possibility of achieving the expected
results. This direct involvement by the social workers served the purpose of developing this
elaborate skill of effective and efficient time management (Wilson, Best, Blackmore, 2016,
p.410). Communication skills were also greatly developed in the entire placement. Most of these
elderly clients had issues with speech development as most of them could not communicate
effectively. This sad realization served the purpose of propelling the social workers into the
elaborate action of sourcing for effective ways of communication so as to get to know of the
other urgent and demanding needs that these persons had. The eventuality of all these esteemed
efforts resulted to improved speech that culminated into efficient communication skills in the
long run. Teamwork was also the other skill developed in this social endeavor as no single
activity within the entire program that could be conducted without the involvement of several
social workers (Milliken, Schipani, Bishara, et al, 2015, p.410).
Conclusion
This elaborate social placement exercise served the purpose of developing all the aspects
of the involved individuals. Personal goals in the idea of developed values such as integrity and
honesty were effectively achieved in the course of this community engagement. Professional
goals on the other hand in line with the set objectives and requirements of the course outline

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were realized. These goals were rolled into play by the profound and effective embrace of social
responsibility which was the core objective that was to be developed in this particular
community engagement (Naaum, Hanner, 2015, p.75).

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