Social Care practice with older people Assignment

Social Care practice with
older people

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
DESCRIPTION................................................................................................................................1
FEELINGS.......................................................................................................................................1
EVALUATION................................................................................................................................2
ANALYSIS......................................................................................................................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
ACTION PLAN...............................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Social isolation means the quantity & quality of the social relationships which a person
has at individual, community, group & societal levels. Apart from this loneliness is a subjective
feeling that is faced when there is a difference between a person's felt & ideal levels of social
relationship. Furthermore, it has been examined that older adult are especially at risk, when late
life changes that affect social connectedness & social networks. The report aims to demonstrate
integrate relevant theory to highlight your understanding of primary prevention in relation to
social isolation and loneliness among older people from a social care perspective.
DESCRIPTION
It has been determined that there has been a growing in this topic of social isolation and
loneliness among older people over years (Christiansen, Larsen and Lasgaard, 2016). Moreover,
elder aged people are considered as more vulnerable to loneliness & social isolation, and are at
risk of number of health and social problems which can be connected to aloneness directly. It is a
kind of state of social segregation; emotional loneliness that appear in the absence of close ones.
It has been observed that, the range of lonely and isolated older people are seeking for assistance
and this has risen by 42% in past few years reflecting Ireland's rapidly ageing population.
I am a social carer, taking care of a lady in Ireland since 2 weeks and her name is Annette
Egan. She is 75 years old professional woman, very happily married & having two children. She
never thought that she would feel the kind of loneliness that makes her heart feel pain (Cohen-
Mansfield and Perach, 2015). Due to work, she moved to Wales 20 years ago and met her
husband and settled into life there. Then they both decided to return to Ireland two years ago so
that their children would grow up there only. But afterwards she regretted about that decision and
she realised that she never felt that loneliness before. Their children left them alone, and after
few months her husband died and she is living alone from last 2 months. She works full-time so
that she can ignore her isolation feeling. Even she does not have any close female friends any
more in this country and she craves it & miss it so much.
FEELINGS
I have been taking care of her, and after I heart her story I felt very bad for her as after all
this that has happened to her, she left her job and now she is living alone at home, performing
home based work for survival. Following the death of her husband Mrs Egan became
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increasingly lonely and recently facing period of ill health, she told me that she sill feels
particularly dejected and very alone at times. I have observed that her biggest form of companion
is her TV, which she keeps watching on all day. This is because of her story I realised that,
family relationships, instead of the loss of any family member is more common in recent years.
Mrs Egan feels too much difficulty to change her clothes and often remains in night wears at the
time of day (Coll‐Planas, Valle Gómez and Monteserin, 2017).
EVALUATION
As per my opinion, people at any stage of life can suffer feeling of loneliness & isolation.
However, based on my experience I have observed that changes related with ageing mean that
older adults can be specifically vulnerable as risk factors for loneliness & social isolation
increase. According to case of Mrs Egan, I have understood that it is possible to be alone without
being socially isolated. Moreover, it is also being discovered that broader social changes like;
increased geographical adaptability, rise in individual person households and a decrease in
intergenerational households has resulted in increase in number of loneliness in later life
(Dahlberg, Andersson and Lennartsson, 2015). Additionally, it was very painful and miserable
experience with her as she was very unhappy with her life. Also, this has become chronic,
progressively became tough for her to come through and was damaging her health too.
Therefore, it made me felt bad for her and so I decided to support her to over come her from this
tough situation. A key principle throughout was to assist her to work out what she needed to do
to find positivity & purpose in her life again and then help her to achieve it. All I have done as a
carer to treat her was performed very well by me as I encouraged her to get involve in social
activities to assist her to reduce her isolation. I used to help her in household work like; seeping
& mopping floors, cleaning wash-rooms, cleaning kitchen, etc. The good about my experience
was that, she was very co-operative during her care period (Djukanović, Sorjonen and Peterson,
2015).
ANALYSIS
After few weeks she enjoyed my company, as I was treating her like a friend and wanted
to make her feel safe and connected. Further, the power of personal relationship between a
patient and social worker is considered very important part of addressing loneliness. Later, I
asked my self that whether I should have given her extra support as she had lost her family,
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friends and spouse, as this could have made all the difference for her well-being rather than a
spiral into depression (Wu and Penning, 2015). As she used to miss her female friends, to reduce
her isolation I used to take her for walk in a nearby park and motivate her to stay active in her
hobbies & interest. Also, provided her opportunities to maintain her sense of purpose & prevent
her from becoming detached. This because, seniors who feel isolated may be unprotected to
different unexpected issues. Moreover, I have observed that lack of transportation is a primary
cause of social detachment, as many older adults do not drive and Mrs Egan has had no one in
the family to take her out (Pontbriand., L., 2017). When she felt comfortable in communicating
with me, I asked her several questions such as; how often does she feel lack of companionship?,
how often does she feel left out?, and how often does she feel dejected from others?, answers of
al these questions were very necessary for me to deeply understand her thoughts so that I assist
her at my best. Although social isolation and loneliness was a major problem in her life, but the
good news is that I helped her in many ways such as; I motivated her to re-engage in important
relationships, start making new friends, etc. Also, because of my profession I knew that older
people learn to enjoy, trust and connect in meaningful ways through technology, and so I taught
Mrs Egan about how effectively using technology can benefit her through digital
communications and that she can talk to me anytime from anywhere (Taube, Kristensson and
Jakobsson, 2015).
CONCLUSION
After experiencing Mrs Egan's situation, I realised that growing old is difficult especially
if someone is alone. Further, loneliness and isolation can create different types of health issues, a
sense of purposelessness, stress, depression, and so on. Thanks to our society who made these
care providing organisations to assist people at institution and even at home as well. Nowadays
various actions are undertaken to ensure that older adult don't experience those tough time alone.
During my job of taking care of her, I realised that being a care provider to a loved one is a
fantastic responsibility, particularly if that person is an old adult living a life of loneliness. It has
been discovered that human beings are considered as social animals, and these personal
relationships are very important factor for happiness and health. Later on I learned that I could
have taken more effective actions to reduce her isolation (Taube, Jakobsson and Kristensson,
2016). Regular exercise could have been a better option as it gives not only a healthy mind but a
healthy body as well. Also, Mrs. Egan's neighbours can be a helpful safety net for her. I should
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have asked her neighbours to keep an eye on her and even help in simple housing activities.
Apart from this, I should have tried to engage her in more interesting activities based on her
interest (Hawkley and Kocherginsky, 2018).
ACTION PLAN
Based on my experience till now with Mrs. Egan's problem of isolation, I have
discovered that what things I have done very well and what didn't work, and if I face any such
problem again in the future, I will do it differently. I find that, Adult day health programs are
considered as a great resource for many issues affecting older adults & their families. I will offer
interesting activities and chances to them so that they can acquire new skills (Gardiner,
Geldenhuys and Gott, 2018).
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Christiansen, J., Larsen, F. B. and Lasgaard, M., 2016. Do stress, health behavior, and sleep
mediate the association between loneliness and adverse health conditions among older
people?. Social Science & Medicine. 152. pp.80-86.
Cohen-Mansfield, J. and Perach, R., 2015. Interventions for alleviating loneliness among older
persons: a critical review. American Journal of Health Promotion. 29(3). pp.e109-e125.
Coll‐Planas, L., del Valle Gómez, G. and Monteserin, R., 2017. Promoting social capital to
alleviate loneliness and improve health among older people in S pain. Health & social care
in the community. 25(1). pp.145-157.
Dahlberg, L., Andersson, L. and Lennartsson, C., 2015. Predictors of loneliness among older
women and men in Sweden: A national longitudinal study. Aging & mental health. 19(5).
pp.409-417.
Djukanović, I., Sorjonen, K. and Peterson, U., 2015. Association between depressive symptoms
and age, sex, loneliness and treatment among older people in Sweden. Aging & mental
health. 19(6). pp.560-568.
Gardiner, C., Geldenhuys, G. and Gott, M., 2018. Interventions to reduce social isolation and
loneliness among older people: an integrative review. Health & social care in the
community. 26(2). pp.147-157.
Hawkley, L.C. and Kocherginsky, M., 2018. Transitions in loneliness among older adults: A 5-
year follow-up in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project. Research on
aging, 40(4), pp.365-387.
Taube, E., Jakobsson, U. and Kristensson, J., 2016. Being in a Bubble: the experience of
loneliness among frail older people. Journal of advanced nursing. 72(3). pp.631-640.
Taube, E., Kristensson, J. and Jakobsson, U., 2015. Loneliness and health care consumption
among older people. Scandinavian journal of caring sciences. 29(3). pp.435-443.
Wu, Z. and Penning, M., 2015. Immigration and loneliness in later life. Ageing & Society, 35(1),
pp.64-95.
Online
Pontbriand., L., 2017. 5 Tips to Reduce Senior Isolation. [Online]. Available on:
<https://www.salmonhealth.com/5-tips-to-reduce-senior-isolation/>
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