Search results for ‘Subject term:"older people"’ Sort:
Results 1 - 2 of 2
The social work role with older people
- Authors:
- LYMBERY Mark, et al
- Journal article citation:
- Practice: Social Work in Action, 19(2), June 2007, pp.97-113.
- Publisher:
- Taylor and Francis
This paper focuses on the role of social workers with older people, drawing on a project carried out in a Midlands Social Services Department. It argues that this role has never been clearly defined, even though the advent of community care ensured an increase in the numbers of practitioners employed in this area of activity. It also suggests that the introduction of care management has tied social workers to the discipline of assessment and has not enabled them to carry out the more detailed and in-depth work that would be common with other service user groups. The authors suggest that the adoption of a grid defining the proper contribution of qualified social workers to practice with older people might both enable scarce resources to be used more productively while clarifying the specific aspects of work on which a qualified social worker should concentrate. They also reflect on the importance of considering the adoption of approaches to practice that go beyond the individualistic focus that has become the staple of social work with older people.
United we stand? Partnership working in health and social care and the role of social work in services for older people
- Author:
- LYMBERY Mark
- Journal article citation:
- British Journal of Social Work, 36(7), October 2006, pp.1119-1134.
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
The concepts of ‘partnership’ and ‘collaboration’ have become amongst the most critical themes of ‘new’ Labour’s social policy, particularly in respect of the delivery of health and social care. Although the terms are rarely precisely defined and hence have become problematic to analyse, in most understandings successful partnerships rely upon good systems of inter-professional collaboration. Through revisiting the extensive literature on the sociology of the professions, and the nature of inter-professional working, this paper will argue that effective collaborative working within health and social care is hard to achieve, particularly in the light of the vast differences in power and culture between various occupational groupings, and the inherently competitive nature of professions jostling for territory in the same areas of activity. It suggests that these issues cannot be resolved unless they are properly understood; a rhetorical appeal to the unmitigated benefits of ‘partnership’ alone will not produce more effective joint working. In addition, it notes that an appropriate role for social work in the context of partnership working has yet to be defined and proposes specific tasks and values that distinguish the social worker from other related professionals.