Social Work with Older People Fourth Edition

Older people provide a significant challenge and opportunity for social work. As a result of broad demographic trends and changes in the welfare state and the role of the family, older people have moved from being a marginal concern to one of central importance in the profession. Such changes have highlighted current professional debates about the identity, status, direction and role of social work with older people.
This new edition of a social work classic is not so much a revision as a complete overhaul and rewrite. The focus remains on the distinctiveness of the social work role and on practice skills. However, social work's multi-agency, multidisciplinary setting is fully recognised throughout and proper emphasis is given to the theoretical, legislative, policy and organisational contexts.

Mary Marshall was Director of the Dementia Services Development Centre at the University of Stirling.