Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.3935/rsp.v21i2.1182
Social Work in Care Homes for Older People – Challenges and Difficulties
Ana Štambuk
; Studijski centar za socijalni rad
Milica Sučić
; Dom za starije i nemoćne osobe “Ksaver”
Suzana Vrh
; Dom za starije i nemoćne osobe “Ksaver”
Abstract
Changes in today’s society, due to all life processes, are reflected in the ageing process as well, thus affecting all those people who are in direct contact with the third age – social workers among others. Due to these changes, the roles of social workers in care homes change as well, now being more than ever focused on providing support to users of social services. This is why social work in care homes for older people has become a human and professional challenge. With the aim of obtaining knowledge about the challenges and difficulties social workers face when working with older people in care homes, a qualitative study was conducted, which involved nine social workers from nine care homes for older people in Zagreb. The results show that social workers assert, as the most important problems / difficulties, specificities of services that include individual work with users, lack of cooperation with family members, overloaded administration, too broad description of social workers’ tasks by statutory regulations, the plight of social workers in the system, too few social workers in relation to the number of users. Also, the need for developing standards for social work in the institutions is asserted, as well as the need for a specific training in the field of palliative care, and work with people suffering from psycho-organic diseases.
Keywords
social work; challenges; difficulties; older people; care homes for older people
Hrčak ID:
125766
URI
Publication date:
31.7.2014.
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