Behind-the-Scenes Work with the Old Old

Abstract

The strain of working with very old people can be considerable, as can the provision of their day-to-day care. The reasons for this are obvious. Whereas most very old people are normal adults with whom one can have a perfectly normal relationship, the very old people we are most likely to meet are those who have particularly severe problems. They will tend to be very dependent people with severe physical or mental infirmities, or people with major problems of resources, personality or behaviour. Combined with the extent of their problems is their complexity. Often old people that we come into contact with will have physical ailments, perhaps some psychiatric disorder and probably a lack of relatives as well. This severity and complexity of problems is hard enough to deal with, but the real strain is in the limited extent of our ability to help. The only solution may seem to be an admission to residential care, but this may not be desirable. Miss Gwenda Jones of Chapter 4, for example, presented the social worker with an interesting set of problems which proved very daunting. She was a severely arthritic old lady of 87 who lived in a house much too big for her requirements.