Case Study: Exploring the Experiences of Ageing in Social Work

This case study examines the experiences of an elderly man, Mr. John, through an interview, focusing on his life story, changes with age, and professional life. It highlights key issues such as elder abuse, health problems, and the impact of retirement on his lifestyle. The study applies two social work theoretical perspectives: Crisis Theory and Structural Theory, to understand Mr. John's situation. Crisis Theory addresses his feelings of depression after retirement, while Structural Theory explores the impact of societal structures and subconscious issues on his personality and well-being. The report concludes that ageing is a natural process and that the insights gained from life experiences are valuable for future decision-making. The case study emphasizes the importance of social work theories in understanding and addressing the challenges faced by older adults.

Case Study

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Interview.................................................................................................................................3
Name and history of the person interviewed..........................................................................4
Major issues and experiences in relation to ageing................................................................4
Two theoretical perspectives in social work..........................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Ageing is refers to the process of growing older. Older people are having huge
experience which have been learnt by them throughout their life journey (Buffel, 2017). The
present report is based on analysis of life story a old person whose information is gained from an
interview. It will also describe about the key issues which are faced by older people in Australia.
Also, it will describe about different factors which places impact on their work as their aged
now. It will also enclose knowledge on overall experience of interviewed person and its
associated two essential theoretical perspective in social work.
Interview
Tell me about your life story?
I am a single man in my house which have made me more self dependent as all major
decisions are taken by me in the house. We are total 6 members (Wife, one daughter, son,
daughter in law, grand son) in house including me. I have spent maximum of my daily hours
outside the home due to professional responsibilities. This have made me habitual of busy
lifestyle but after my retirement I have suffered a lot because, it was not possible for me to spent
my whole day at home as there is no one with whom I can spend my time. Now I have started
indulging into the activities associated with social issues so that I can spend my time and also
contribute in the societal development work.
Describe changes experienced by you with the growing age?
Growing age has brought numerous of changes in my lifestyle as I gone through various
experiences which have been gained by me with the changing time. By looking at overall
experience of mine, it has been observed by me that growing age has changed by thinking
pattern as I have learned many things from my journey and if someone goes through my
decisions and compare it with the past then they can easily find a big difference in it. Along with
this, my relationships as well as roles in the family constantly got updated as earlier I was only a
son, later I married to the girlfriend and became husband as well as father after some year. After
that, number of relations increased as after some decades my son got married and I became
father in law as well. All of these relations has taught many things and helped me out in living a
better lifestyle. Also, with the growing age I got arrested by many health issues like Cardiac

Attack, Asthma and Diabetes. Some of these health issues are life long which has also influenced
my lifestyle as it made it difficult for me to execute my daily based activities (Buffel, 2017).
Do you think growing age has affected your professional lifestyle?
Yes, I do believe this because I had faced many situations at workplace where my
subordinates were getting more preferences from the superiors side as they thinks these freshers
owns better skills which helps them in executing same work in less period of time (Schlüter and
et. al., 2017).
Name and history of the person interviewed.
Name: Mr. John Thomas
History: It is based on old person aged 62 year lives in Sydney city, Australia. The old person
has spend maximum of his life in this city as his schooling, college and working life has been
spend in this Sydney only.
Major issues and experiences in relation to ageing
On the basis of overall interview, it has been analysed that Mr. John has faced numerous
of issues related to growing age. In this, it has been seen that Mr. John has mainly suffered from
elder abuse in his professional life. This is because, superiors at workplace believes that new
staff who belongs to young age group are able to perform similar kind of work more effectively
within less period time. This shows that superiors has conducted discrimination at workplace
with Mr. John that have resulted in huge disappointment of that person as he have given many
years to the same company. While talking about health, Mr. John have represented that with the
passing time he has also gone through many life long diseases such as diabetes, cardiac attack,
Asthma etc. This shows that life journey of this man was not good enough as it was difficult for
them to deal with many health at a time as body does not support effectively (Richards, 2019).
Friendship zone of Mr. John was very nice as this person has many old but good friends who
have supported him in every stage of his life. It can be said that some of these friends belongs to
childhood zone which shows that there relationship has grown in positive directions with passing
time. According to Mr. John healthy relationship with friends has encouraged him in many
situation and motivated him to handle all situations calmly without feeling lonely.
Apart from this, experiences related to ageing includes growth of new relationship as well
as role in the life. This means that when an individual crosses specific age then it changes
number roles for the person. Like, with the growing age Mr. John firstly become father first then

after crossing almost three decades he later became grand parent. This reflects that ageing has
transformed his relationships and roles as at starting this person was only playing role of a son,
later became a husband and father, after few years the same person is now playing role of grand
parent (Schumpeter, 2017). While talking about the income, it has been analysed that Mr. John is
financial independent person as ageing has not affected its in dependency in terms of income
because he has good range of savings and some strong investments which are giving him high
returns at monthly basis. Therefore, even after reaching 62, Mr. John as well as his wife are not
dependent on their children as well as anyone else. But, while placing lights on the impact of
retirement, it has been seen that the retirement has placed high affects on Mr. John's life as
earlier he was busy in professional as well as personal life but after the retirement, life of this
person is not as good as earlier because the older person feels bored because he does not have
range of work to pass his time (George, 2019). This is because, his son is busy in office work and
wife of this person is not well enough with whom he can talk and spent his hours and grand
children are busy in the school. All of them are busy or not able to spent their time with Mr.
John. This has made life of this boring as he is not having specific schedule like earlier with
which his rest of the life can be passed easily (Voss, Wolff and Rothermund, 2017).
Two theoretical perspectives in social work
The overall life experiences of Mr. John can easily be understood by using effective as
well as suitable theory associated with social work. The theoretical perspective which are taken
into consideration for better understanding on the experience of Mr. John are Crisis Theory and
Structural Theory. Both of these theories fits to the current scenario as it describes overall life
experience in the presentable manner.
1) Crisis Theory: This theory is described to be an metaphor towards understanding
analytical social thought one might create which leads to erasing social values and becoming
confused (Heslop, 2017). In general terms a person is unable to take proper decisions in such
situations here, abnormality of decision making and anxiety is the main source of such theories.
Several surveys were held to concluded and it was found that crises generally In this case Mr.
John has an issue of of depression since he was worked for a peaceful life. Still after retirement
he was not satisfied even though it was not due to financial crises or anything but due to sitting
at home doing nothing. Every single person reacts different in same situation, everyone has a
different mentality level and reacts either very aggressively or silently. In this case jhon has

worked all his life and now after retirement has nothing to do. His children and everyone is busy
in their own life that loneliness is eating him inside. This is a crises since no one can help such
person unless he/she wants to be relieved (Hinchliff and et. al., 2018). Their is several method
which can be used to help out such person but eventually core problem is known only to person
suffering from it. Unless the person wants to change no one can help him.
2) Structural Theory: This theory has a huge impact over any individuals personality
and points on various sections of brain which are closely related to our personality and
behaviour. Mostly such issues are generated unconsciously, these can be due to childhood
memories, adulthood issues or physical inability, loneliness and financial issues as well (Makoni
and Stroeken, 2017). All such issues affect an individual personality deeply and react to their
present mind set and gives different reactions. This has several stages which a person crosses
while being in such mind set. The case scenario here is that Mr. John had a very similar busy
lifestyle and has full filled all responsibility towards children and family. After all this now after
retirement he does not have much to do, there are no particular work and similarly his scheduled
life has no purpose any more. Such people create issues in their head subconsciously and become
very depressed and emotionless at one point of time (Martens, 2018). His wife also stays sick
mostly and other family members are always busy so this has made an subconscious impact on
Mr. John brain and has started to effect his social life as well. Such situations changes person on
a drastic level and get several repercussion for such situation.
CONCLUSION
From the above mentioned report, it has been concluded that ageing is a part of life from
which every individual has to go through once in a life. Along with this, it has also been seen
that individuals learns a lot from their life experiences as it helps them in taking better decisions
in future. Usage of social learning theory is helpful in understanding the life experience of
individual as they are able to analyse which experience of growing ageing has made them learnt
what.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Buffel, T., 2017. Ageing migrants and the creation of home: Mobility and the maintenance of
transnational ties. Population, Space and Place. 23(5). p.e1994.
Heslop, A., 2017. Poverty and livelihoods in an ageing world. In The Ageing and Development
Report (pp. 40-50). Routledge.
Hinchliff, S., and et. al., 2018. Older adults’ experiences of sexual difficulties: Qualitative
findings from the English longitudinal study on ageing (ELSA). The Journal of Sex
Research. 55(2). pp.152-163.
Makoni, S. and Stroeken, K., 2017. Introduction Towards Transdisciplinary Studies on Ageing in
Africa. In Ageing in Africa (pp. 1-18). Routledge.
Martens, K., 2018. Ageing, impairments and travel: Priority setting for an inclusive transport
system. Transport policy. 63. pp.122-130.
Moffatt, S. and Heaven, B., 2017. ‘Planning for uncertainty’: narratives on retirement transition
experiences. Ageing & Society. 37(5). pp.879-898.
Torres‐Ortuño, A., and et. al., 2017. Life experience of the adult and ageing patient with
haemophilia. Practical aspects for psychological support. Vox sanguinis. 112(4).
pp.301-309.
Voss, P., Wolff, J .K. and Rothermund, K., 2017. Relations between views on ageing and
perceived age discrimination: A domain-specific perspective. European journal of
ageing. 14(1). pp.5-15.
George, A. L., 2019. Case studies and theory development: The method of structured, focused
comparison. In Alexander L. George: A Pioneer in Political and Social Sciences (pp.
191-214). Springer, Cham.
Schumpeter, J. A., 2017. Theory of economic development. Routledge.
Richards, G., 2019. Human evolution: An introduction for the behavioural sciences. Routledge.
Schlüter, M., and et. al., 2017. A framework for mapping and comparing behavioural theories in
models of social-ecological systems. Ecological Economics. 131. pp.21-35.