Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/9020
Title: On the edge of a new frontier: Is gerontological social work in the UK ready to meet twenty-first-century challenges?
Authors: Richards, S
Sullivan, MP
Tanner, D
Beech, C
Milne, A
Ray, M
Phillips, J
Lloyd, L
Keywords: Ageing and older people;Gerontological social work research;Gerontological social work education
Issue Date: 2013
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Citation: The British Journal of Social Work, Online First, 2013
Abstract: This article explores the readiness of gerontological social work in the UK for meeting the challenges of an ageing society by investigating the focus on work with older people in social work education and the scope of gerontological social work research. The discussion draws on findings from two exploratory studies: a survey of qualifying master's programmes in England and a survey of the content relating to older people over a six-year period in four leading UK social work journals. The evidence from master's programmes suggests widespread neglect of ageing in teaching content and practice learning. Social work journals present a more nuanced picture. Older people emerge within coverage of generic policy issues for adults, such as personalisation and safeguarding, and there is good evidence of the complexity of need in late life. However, there is little attention to effective social work interventions, with an increasingly diverse older population, or to the quality of gerontological social work education. The case is made for infusing content on older people throughout the social work curriculum, for extending practice learning opportunities in social work with older people and for increasing the volume and reporting of gerontological social work research.
Description: This article is available open access through the publisher’s website. Copyright @ 2013 The Authors.
URI: http://bjsw.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2013/05/09/bjsw.bct082
http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/9020
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bct082
ISSN: 1468-263X
Appears in Collections:Social Work
Dept of Health Sciences Research Papers

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