Geriatric Social Work Biopsychosocial Assessment
Demographic
D. T. is a 73-year-old Black American Man who is now an American Citizen. He was born in 1950 in the rural areas of Ontario, Canada, where he grew up in a family of 6, his parents and three siblings. He moved to the U.S. for his Engineering College Degree. He later secured a job in Texas, where he worked for about 40 years. D. T. says he enjoyed his work because he was passionate about construction (Schenker & Costa, 2019). He also made a good living and has lived a contented life since he started working.
While working as a construction manager, he married a beautiful wife and had two children. However, his wife passed on in 2015, and his 2 children live and work in different cities. He retired in 2017 due to physical fragility and the inability to effectively execute his professional duties. He spends most of his time alone and with his two dog pets.
General Health
D. T. is generally in good health as he does not have diabetes, hypertension, or other elderly conditions. He goes for quarterly health check-ups to ensure he is in good health. Past reports on the check-up indicate that his vital organs are in a perfect state. However, his mental state is not healthy because he, at times, loses sleep and also forgets things easily (Friedman et al., 2019). Even with these symptoms, he has never been diagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer’s, or deteriorating memory capacity. He also has poor eyesight, but he is generally independent and autonomous.
Daily & Instrumental Activities
Since his retirement, D. T. has been at home, usually taking a morning walk. He prepares his meals, which helps to pass the time (Schenker & Costa, 2019). He also takes care of his two dog pets, which he cleans, feeds, and cleans their houses. He explains that he is helped to do heavy chores like housekeeping, mowing his lawn, maintaining his compound, and going to the grocery. When he was young, he loved swimming and basketball, which he used to play, but now he cannot. However, he takes time to follow up on his favorite teams.
Mental Health
D. T.’s mental health is the reason that he needs medical attention. On the assessment, D. stated that he has difficulty eating because he feels lonely eating alone. This has affected his appetite, and he gets two meals a day, but there are days when he gets only one meal (Schenker & Costa, 2019). He is also lonely since his wife died, and his sleep has been affected as he sleeps for 5 hours on average. Also, since his children are away, he does not have company, which makes his thoughts wander away most of the time.
Social Resources
D. T. fairly enjoys social resources, including transport resources, insurance, and access to medical services. He stays where transport services are accessible and uses the train and cab for medical check-ups. He has healthcare insurance, which helps him seek services whenever he feels unwell. The last incident when he was sick was six months ago when he had a severe flu. He reports that lately, he forgets to pay for his healthcare insurance, which he fears might affect his access to healthcare services.
Caregiver Section
He lacks social support from friends and family, worsening his emotional state. D. T. does not have any caregiver services because he has not tested for dementia or Alzheimer’s.
Needs Assessment
The geriatric biopsychosocial assessment sets the foundation for an in-depth assessment of D. T.’s mental health needs. Information shared by D. T. indicates that, at the moment, he does not receive any counseling services. He copes with his day-to-day by occupying his time with the activities. However, based on the assessment, he needs counseling, particularly grief counseling (Schenker & Costa, 2019). As he expressed, the loss of his wife affects him psychologically. D. T. is still mourning the loss of his wife, and he needs help getting through the grief states. Counseling will help him maintain a positive outlook on life so he can enjoy his later years because he still seems energetic and optimistic about his life.
Living Arrangement
In addition, D. T. needs a change of his life arrangement. He explains that he spends most of his time alone. Too much alone time predisposes him to feeling lonely, alone, and angry as he wishes his wife had not passed on. To remedy this, D. T.s needs a hybrid lifestyle where he gets to interact with other people and enjoy social interactions (Schenker & Costa, 2019).
For example, it will help him join groups of people his age in the same area. Such groups receive psychosocial support such as therapy, group activities, pursuit of different interests, and home visits. These activities help create a supportive community of people he can reach out to or spend time with to avoid loneliness.
Client and Family Education
D. T. and his family need education about the general welfare of D. and how best to support him. There is a need to educate his children who live in different cities about the importance of visiting their father. The children need to understand that they play a huge role in the welfare of their father. They could improve by increasing the frequency of the visits and making time to speak to him on the phone. Alternatively, they can create a program to switch their visits so that their father sees them more often.
Another way of providing emotional support is counseling the children (Mukhtar, 2021). They can tell their father that he needs a change of lifestyle because of his healthcare situation. Hearing it from those caring about him will improve his reception to counseling and agency services.
Living Services
D. T. also demands assisted living services to help him get through his daily activities. The assessment showed that he can bathe, dress, use the bathroom, eat, and move across short distances. However, he should be assisted with nutrition and in-home hygiene.
To this end, he requires a nutritionist to prepare his meal plans. The meal plans could be weekly to ensure his nutritional deficiencies are met. A nutritionist will also recommend appetizers because D. mentions that he experiences a loss of appetite (Mukhtar, 2021). The meal plans will also provide various means and snacks to encourage D. to eat. The person in charge of assisting D. with his daily duties will prepare the meals and ensure the meals are ready for him when he is hungry. Assisted living would also keep D.’s bedroom, living area, and the whole environment clean; he likes the space and enjoys the time he spends at home.
Referrals to Community Agencies
D. T. needs his family, friends, and peers from community groups for emotional support. Emotional support means showing him love, care, trust, and empathy. As a widower, D. feels lonely and alone with no one to show him love as his wife did. He needs to be shown empathy for someone to validate his emotions of anger and loneliness (Miaskowski et al., 2020). He also needs to be loved genuinely by hearing and through actions. While his children can do this best, those around him must also remind him that he belongs and is loved and cherished by his family and friends.
Ethical Considerations
Social Justice
Social Justice as an ethical principle in the NASW Code of Ethics entails advocating for Justice for the elderly community. In the case of D. T., he experiences social injustice through lack of information and access to mental health services. Critically thinking, D.’s age predisposes him to vulnerability, where he is isolated for not being able to blend in with young, energetic people. The social justice ethical principle resolves this by involving healthcare professionals’ biopsychosocial assessment for better healthcare attendance (Cnossen & Pearce, 2020). The proposed recommendations provide access to information, care, and healthcare services and address the underlying elements of social injustice.
Stewardship and Community
Two of Saint Leo University’s Core Values apply to D. T.’s psychosocial assessment: responsible stewardship and community. The two core values often seem natural, but in this case assessment, D. T. lacks community and professional care from healthcare professionals. Integrating responsible stewardship and community means involving people in his wellness journey. D. T.’s friends and family will be his community and responsible stewards who will recommend professional help when he needs it. Also, having a community
Community as a core value is espoused through helping people have a sense of belonging, unity, trust, and interdependence (Golden et al., 2019). Taking care of older people, respecting them, and being mindful of their well-being is a true gesture of responsible stewardship.
References
Cnossen, C. J., & Pearce, E. B. (2020). National association of social workers code of ethics. Introduction to Human Services. Web.
Friedman, S. M., Mulhausen, P., Cleveland, M. L., Coll, P. P., Daniel, K. M., Hayward, A. D., & White, H. K. (2019). Healthy aging: American Geriatrics Society white paper executive summary. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 67(1), 17-20.
Golden, R. L., Emery, E. E., Post, S., Ewald, B., & Newman, M. (2019). Connecting social, clinical, and home care services for persons with serious illness in the community. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 67(S2), S412-S418. Web.
Miaskowski, C., Blyth, F., Nicosia, F., Haan, M., Keefe, F., Smith, A., & Ritchie, C. (2020). A biopsychosocial model of chronic pain for older adults. Pain Medicine, 21(9), 1793-1805. Web.
Mukhtar, S. (2021). Psychosocial impact of COVID-19 on older adults: A cultural geriatric mental healthcare perspective. In Gerontological Social Work and COVID-19 (pp. 175-177). Routledge.
Schenker, M., & Costa, D. H. D. (2019). Advances and challenges of health care of the elderly population with chronic diseases in primary health care. Ciencia & saude coletiva, 24, 1369-1380. Web.