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Essay on Implications for Social Work Practice with Homeless Elderly
All of us need a little help at one time or another. We can lose our jobs, get evicted from our apartments, get sick with a serious illness, go into debt, and even develop problems with drugs or alcohol.Fortunately, when we find ourselves struggling in situations like these, there is somewhere to turn. We look to social workers, who serve as a resource when we can no longer handle life's biggest problems alone. Social workers point us to the appropriate programs and social services to help us cope (Mishel, Bernstein, 1993).
For example, a person with psychiatric problems might be referred to a social worker through an inpatient psychiatric program. A social worker would work with that patient to help find long-term treatment after release from a hospital, and look for financial assistance (like social security) or health insurance (like Medicare or Medicaid) as well as job-training, if that's what it takes to get a client back on his or her feet. Once the client is back in society again, either working or enrolled in a program, a social worker might conduct periodic follow-ups to check that client's progress. If a client continues to have problems, a social worker tries to find new programs to address them. Some social workers do all this work one-on-one, others work with a group of clients.
While this is one way that social workers work, the actual day-to-day routine of social workers depends heavily on where a social worker is employed. Some work in schools, others in prisons, rehab centers, hospitals, mental health clinics, government agencies, senior citizen homes, and some in private practice. Some even do research for universities and government agencies. Social workers run programs for juvenile offenders, teen mothers or high school drop-outs. They work with special needs children or recent immigrants who haven't yet learned the language......
