Social Work With Older Adults in Healthcare Settings

This chapter presents an introduction to issues relevant to social work with older adults in healthcare settings. It provides an overview of the demographic changes related to aging and their implications for social workers in health care. The chapter describes the concept of comprehensive geriatric assessments and the empirical literature on their efficacy. It also describes the core components of culturally relevant ethnogeriatric assessment. Using a biopsychosocial approach, the chapter also provides an overview of the domains of knowledge necessary to assess the needs and resources of older adults. It outlines the nature of social work practice with older adults in healthcare settings such as primary care, inpatient hospital care, hospital-to-home transitional care, home health care, and nursing homes. The chapter further discusses the issues and challenges related to working with older individuals encountered by social workers in the current healthcare environment.