The Role of Social Workers in Providing Independent Support to Vulnerable Seniors

Vulnerability comes in many different forms for seniors. There are physical frailties. Declining health. Limited autonomy. There is also the risk of predation from cyber criminals and other scammers.

Then there are practical concerns. How does a person who can no longer drive get to the various medical appointments that are necessary for maintaining their health?

It takes a village to manage all of these concerns. Social workers cannot handle all of these issues. They do, however, play a pivotal role in protecting at-risk seniors, working closely with them and their family members to ensure the highest quality of life possible.

In this article, we take a look at geriatric social work responsibilities, assess stress factors, and determine if this might be a rewarding career that you want to consider.

What do Geriatric Social Workers do?

The core responsibility of the geriatric social workers is to work directly with the senior citizen. They are not necessarily responsible for facilitating the senior citizen's wishes. They are responsible for developing a care plan that takes their most pressing needs into account.

Often, they collaborate with family members. However, it is important to understand that “family” in the context of social work, and in fact, healthcare is often a loaded word. 

While relatives often mean well, their intentions do not always align with what is best for the elderly person. Generally, it is not a question of bad intentions, but rather ignorance or emotional reasoning that can make family members a barrier to care.

While this is a challenge that virtually every geriatric social worker will have some familiarity with, family participation in elder care is ultimately a positive thing.

What are the Responsibilities that Geriatric Social Workers Experience each Day?

Like any social work job, the responsibilities will vary based on who is on your caseload. Often, geriatric social workers will coordinate appointments, facilitate counseling, and ensure that the senior citizen is enjoying the highest quality of life possible to them.

Tall order? Naturally. Such is the burden of anyone going into social work. While the specific responsibilities change by the day, the essence of the work remains the same. Geriatric social workers aim to maximize the physical and mental health of everyone on their caseload.

What are the Challenges of Geriatric Social Work?

How long have you got? Ask 10 geriatric social workers. They’ll get each of you 10 very detailed and quite possibly different answers to that question. It is not an easy line of work. It is an important one.

Basic challenges center around the fact that the people you’re working with will most likely never improve in the traditional sense. The work you do will most likely have a positive impact on their lives, but their physical ailments— the reason they need to see you in the first place-- usually do not get significantly better.

Geriatric social workers, just like anyone who works with the very old, are forced to watch people that they often become close with decline.

For many people, this can be traumatic. Granted it’s not like social workers are conditioned to expect wins. Every social worker, regardless of what specific discipline they choose, generally winds up watching many people decline or suffer.

Geriatric social workers also operate within a world that is not necessarily well tailored toward the needs of their caseload. This is another familiar concern for social workers.

Those who need social workers in the first place are generally disadvantaged. And those who are disadvantaged generally find themselves in that state, not only because of the specific reason that they are seeing the social worker.

Your caseload may come from a lower socio-economic background. They may lack a support system. They may have experienced abuse or neglect.

These conditions make the social worker's job more difficult, but also potentially more rewarding. Often the geriatric social worker may be the only significant support resource in their caseload’s lives. It is an overwhelming burden, but also, for some people very thing that makes this job worth doing.

Benefits of Being a Social Worker

Social workers command salaries that are higher than the national median. They are not getting rich, but they can live comfortable lives. More importantly, they do work that matters. Most people become social workers, not with any kind of salary expectation, but because they want to spend their days doing work that matters.

If you want a rewarding job in an in-demand field, social work is a great path to choose.

What Does it Take to Become a Geriatric Social Worker?

All social workers are required to get an undergraduate degree in social work. Most also go on to get a master's degree. It is worth pointing out that the pay associated with this work is not proportionate to that of most careers that require a master’s degree. Social work is ultimately a labor of love.

Is this job the right fit for you? If you have what it takes to be a fierce advocate, you may find that social work is the perfect job. The ideal social worker will not expect success at every turn, but will be grateful for the difference they make every time they are able to positively influence someone’s life.

It is a job that requires significant patience and emotional fortitude, but it is ultimately work that many people find rewarding.