5 Poverty and late-life homelessness
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Amanda Grenier
Abstract
Responses to poverty, inequality and marginalisation are at the heart of critical approaches to social work and ageing. However, the boundaries being drawn around gerontological social work in education and practice tend to focus on health and on professional issues of assessment and service delivery, with limited connections to either critical gerontology or structural social work. Analysing responses to poverty and late-life homelessness from a critical perspective can explain how these gaps emerged, and situate a more clearly articulated critical gerontological social work approach in research, education and practice. Homelessness among older people is on the rise across international contexts such as the United States (US), Canada, Europe and Australia (Crane et al, 2005; Gaetz et al, 2016). Some estimates suggest that the numbers of older people who are homeless have grown by 20 per cent in the early 2000s (Crane and Joly, 2014). Although many factors contribute to this rise in late-life homelessness, many of the antecedents can be attributed to service provision, lifelong poverty and social crises such as trauma, family breakdown and mental health/substance challenges (Brown et al, 2016).
Abstract
Responses to poverty, inequality and marginalisation are at the heart of critical approaches to social work and ageing. However, the boundaries being drawn around gerontological social work in education and practice tend to focus on health and on professional issues of assessment and service delivery, with limited connections to either critical gerontology or structural social work. Analysing responses to poverty and late-life homelessness from a critical perspective can explain how these gaps emerged, and situate a more clearly articulated critical gerontological social work approach in research, education and practice. Homelessness among older people is on the rise across international contexts such as the United States (US), Canada, Europe and Australia (Crane et al, 2005; Gaetz et al, 2016). Some estimates suggest that the numbers of older people who are homeless have grown by 20 per cent in the early 2000s (Crane and Joly, 2014). Although many factors contribute to this rise in late-life homelessness, many of the antecedents can be attributed to service provision, lifelong poverty and social crises such as trauma, family breakdown and mental health/substance challenges (Brown et al, 2016).
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents vii
- List of figures and tables viii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xiii
- Preface xv
- Social work and critical gerontology: why the former needs the latter 1
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Critical gerontology as guiding principles for social work with older people
- The lifecourse and old age 19
- Human rights and older people 35
- Agency and autonomy 51
- Poverty and late-life homelessness 66
- Sexuality and rights in later life 81
- Ethnicity, race and migrancy 97
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Applying the critical gerontological lens to social work research, policy and practice
- Assessment, care planning and decision making 115
- Elder abuse 130
- Dementia: a disability and a human rights concern 146
- User involvement 161
- Opportunities and future prospects for gerontological social work with a critical lens 177
- Index 192
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front Matter i
- Contents vii
- List of figures and tables viii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Acknowledgements xiii
- Preface xv
- Social work and critical gerontology: why the former needs the latter 1
-
Critical gerontology as guiding principles for social work with older people
- The lifecourse and old age 19
- Human rights and older people 35
- Agency and autonomy 51
- Poverty and late-life homelessness 66
- Sexuality and rights in later life 81
- Ethnicity, race and migrancy 97
-
Applying the critical gerontological lens to social work research, policy and practice
- Assessment, care planning and decision making 115
- Elder abuse 130
- Dementia: a disability and a human rights concern 146
- User involvement 161
- Opportunities and future prospects for gerontological social work with a critical lens 177
- Index 192
