Social work with elderly women and men – Similarities and differences

• Authors: Kramkowska, Emilia

Abstracts

EN

Introduction: Polish society is ageing, which means that the population of the elderly represents, and will continue to represent, an increasing proportion of the population. This situation implies a number of consequences and problems that need to be solved. This paper discusses one of the important issues related to an ageing Polish society, which is social work with elderly women and men. Method: The article is based on qualitative research (structured in-depth interview) conducted in 2011 among employees of social welfare centers (social workers and psychologists) in Podlaskie Voivodship. The study covered all the social welfare centers in the voivodship. As many as 145 interviews were conducted – 133 with social workers and 12 with psychologists. Results and conclusions: This paper discusses the similarities and differences in working with elderly women and men, illustrated with the statements of social welfare employees. Respondents indicated that working with seniors is more difficult than with young people as it requires more time and patience. However, there are also many advantages of this kind of contact, such as seniors’ gratitude and their cultured approach to social workers. Seniors’ gender also matters. Men are less likely to report to the centers, but if they decide to take such a step, they work harder than women and do not withdraw from the activity. In the summary of the paper, there are directions for future activities in the field of social work with the elderly.

Keywords

EN

old age; the elderly; social work; social welfare

• Publisher: Akademia Pedagogiki Specjalnej im. Marii Grzegorzewskiej. Wydawnictwo APS
• Journal: Praca Socjalna
• Year: 2017
• Volume: 32(4)
• Pages: 71-86

Dates

published

2019-12-31

Contributors

author

Kramkowska, Emilia