Older Adults and Family Therapy Teaching Module

This teaching module contains PowerPoint slides with teaching notes, a teaching script, and additional resource materials. It includes information related to assessment issues, evidence–based treatment/best practices, treatment manual references, Internet resources, discussion questions, and references. The module describes population and multigenerational demographics, assessment issues, access to resources, family informants, family functioning, physiological aging, psychological aging, social supports, spirituality, caregiving arrangements, shifts of role reversal, conflicts, spousal roles, elder abuse, assessment tools, psychoeducation, Solution-Focused Therapy, case examples, and Internet resources related to working with the elderly.

Competencies Addressed in This Module:

• Engaging, maintaining rapport, and sustaining effective working relationships with a wide range of older adults (including those with behavior problems, mental illness, and dementia), their families, and caregivers
• Ability to provide comprehensive geriatric social work case management to link elders and their families to resources and services to assist them with multifaceted problems and provide long-term care planning
• Utilization of family interventions with older adults and their families (e.g., promote safety, restore relationships) in order to assist caregivers to reduce their stress levels, maintain their own mental and physical health, and promote better care of the elder
• Reevaluation and adjustment of service or care plans for older adults on a continuing basis
• Development of interventions based on the stages in the late-life family and intergenerational roles and interaction.

(a) Integrate understanding of caretaker’s behavior (current and historical) that leads to                         engagement, withdrawal, disempowerment, or empowerment of elderly relative
(b) Support the multiple types of grandparent roles
(c) Build interventions around cultural strengths and challenges in the intergenerational family