Posted March 24, 2023
March is Social Work Month, and the 2023 theme is Social Work Breaks Barriers. Greater than 700,000 social employees nationwide entered the occupation as a result of they’ve a dedication to creating our communities, our nation, and our world a greater place for all. Throughout Social Work Month, NASW) is spearheading efforts to extend public consciousness about how social employees proceed to interrupt boundaries in all communities, and the way the contributions of this important occupation enhance our nation.
The Nationwide Middle to Reframe Ageing is devoted to ending ageism by advancing an equitable and full story about getting older in America. The middle is the trusted supply for confirmed communication methods and instruments to successfully body getting older points. It’s the nation’s main group cultivating an lively neighborhood of people and organizations to unfold consciousness of implicit bias in opposition to older folks and affect insurance policies and applications that profit us all of us as we age.
In recognition of Social Work Month, NASW and the Nationwide Middle have collaborated to convey you these recommendations on how social employees can combine efficient framing about getting older in our work:
Evaluation
When participating with our shoppers in a collaborative evaluation course of, we are able to mix our person-centered method with age-inclusive language that reinforces the consumer’s sense of company. We will additionally emphasize interdependence as a actuality at all ages.
Instance: Give attention to the consumer’s strengths and objectives to spotlight how social work providers and different sources will help understand these objectives. Clarify that every one of us depend on helps and providers all through our lives to normalize the necessity for extra assist, reinforce the consumer’s self-determination to the extent doable throughout the continuum of bodily and cognitive functionality.
Advocacy and Different Outreach
Insurance policies that promote well being and well-being in later life profit folks of all ages. In our communications communications with colleagues (each inside and past our respective organizations), policymakers, funders, and different stakeholders, we are able to spotlight our collective accountability as a society to scale back boundaries to age-inclusive bodily and social environments and to strengthen sources that assist us all as we age.
Instance: “One in every of our society’s strengths is our perception in justice. A simply society ensures that everybody, no matter age, can take part and contribute in significant methods. Too usually, we restrict alternatives for older folks and decrease their contributions. That is unjust to older folks and a loss to our communities. To dwell as much as our beliefs, we should confront the injustice of ageism.”
For extra info, go to the NASW aging practice microsite and the National Center to Reframe Aging.
Hannah Albers, BA (she, her), is program director of the Nationwide Middle to Reframe Ageing, led by the the Gerontological Society of America on behalf of ten main getting older organizations. She is educated as a facilitator of efficient framing methods.
Alycia Claproth, MSW (she, her), is the communications supervisor on the Nationwide Middle to Reframe Ageing. She involves the Nationwide Middle with a background in Reframing Elder Abuse.
Chris Herman, MSW, LICSW (she, her), is senior observe affiliate–getting older within the NASW nationwide workplace. She has been educated within the Reframing Ageing communications technique and leads NASW’s dissemination and integration of the Reframing Elder Abuse Initiative, a sister mission led by the National Center on Elder Abuse.
