SocW 514 Aging, Multigenerational Practice and Social Justice

Course Overview

The dramatic growth of the older population, especially among populations of color, has resulted in a corresponding increase in the number and diversity of multigenerational families, with four or five generations often assisting one another financially, emotionally and physically. Social workers in all practice settings and with all age groups increasingly encounter older family members: in the child welfare system or schools where they work with grandparents who are assuming the primary care of grandchildren; in hospitals or community-based health settings where middle aged children are simultaneously caring for older parents, grandparents and younger dependents; in mental health centers where multigenerational families may seek assistance with decision-making or addressing issues of grief and loss across the life span; and among the homeless and most vulnerable members of our society. Social workers also encounter inequities and health disparities that increase across the life span, with older women of color forming the poorest and most functionally disabled group in our society.

A strengths-based, multigenerational family and community- focused framework, that values diversity, resiliency and empowerment, underlies the course objectives and content. This framework derives from the School's mission related to social justice, multiculturalism, community linkages and social change.

The course will focus upon knowledge, skills and values for working effectively with older adults within multigenerational relationships. It recognizes the reciprocity that occurs across generations, including not only family members, but also friends, neighbors, colleagues and community stakeholders. It will build upon SW 510/511 Generalist Micro/Meso Level Practice, with a focus on assessment and interventions within a multigenerational framework. In doing so, it will address the following issues across the life span: aging; caregiving for older adults, adults with disabilities and grandchildren; coping with loss, including the loss most feared by older adults and their families - dementia; and programmatic cross-generational interventions.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, students should:

• Understand the complexity and reciprocity of multicultural, multigenerational dynamics
• Be able to differentiate intergenerational, intergenerational and multigenerational exchanges across different age groups, substantive areas and families and communities and how these affect well-being.
• Identify how both strengths, conceptualized as resiliency, and challenges - physically, socially, and emotionally - may be transmitted across multiple generations.
• Apply knowledge of human behavior across the life span and across generations in working with older adults within a multigenerational framework.
• Articulate the strengths/contributions of older adults across multiple generations and how those can be mobilized to address social problems.
• Be able to bring a multigenerational, multicultural lens to their interviewing and assessment of the strengths of older individuals, families and communities. A multicultural lens encompasses one's assumptions, beliefs, values and behaviors with regard to race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, age, ability, and religion.
• Build upon the strengths and resiliency of multigenerational families/other cross-generational informal networks as a basis for formulating and implementing culturally and age appropriate interventions with older adults.
• Develop specialized assessment skills across the life span pertaining to caregiving; abuse, particularly elder abuse; and issues of loss.
• Identify ways to evaluate effectiveness of interventions within a multigenerational context.
• Articulate the major components of effective intergenerational programs and how to translate those to multiple generations in diverse settings. Apply course concepts to case studies, including assessing the feasibility of multigenerational strategies to support families in transitional housing (Sound Families Project).

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