McInnis-Dittrich, K. (2020). Social work with older adults: A biopsychosocial approach to assessment and intervention (5th ed.). Pearson.

· Chapter 1: The Context of Social Work Practice with Older Adults, pp 8-18

· Chapter 12: Working with Older Adults’ Support Systems in Caregiving

Ferraro, K., & Wilmoth, J. (Eds.) (2013). Gerontology: Perspectives and Issues (4th ed.). Springer.

· Chapter 13: Gerontological Social Work: Meeting the Needs of Elders and Their Families

Guidelines
Describe how this older adult illustrates three key concepts or theories from the course, using verbatim excerpts from your interview. Conclude with reflections on the personal impact of this interview on your own understanding of aging and implications for social work with older adults.

Develop 8 to 10 – Open-Ended Interview Questions ( NO- yes/no questions) and cover the areas of aging discussed in the course. You are free to focus on particular areas rather than being comprehensive.

Try to focus not only on the effects of biological, cognitive, social, or emotional changes but also on how your subject has responded to them.

Your interview can be in-person, via phone, or video.

Take notes as your subject responds, using their own words. You may need to ask them to pause so you can record some of their responses verbatim. You can go beyond your initial interview questions to ask follow-up questions that lead to richer responses.

Grading Criteria
Your paper will be graded on the richness of responses you elicited, how you relate these responses to theories and concepts, the depth of your personal reflections, and implications for social work practice. By depth, we mean going beyond repetition of learning to analysis and synthesis.

Category

Description

Questions and Responses

Interview questions are designed to elicit meaningful responses relevant to aging processes, and subject responses are rich in evidence illustrating these processes.

Conceptual Integration

Concepts of aging from the course are related to the subject’s responses and are integrated into a whole that explains the subject’s aging experience.

Personal Reflection

Implications of the interview for your own evolving understanding of the aging process are explored in depth.

Practice Implications

Explore in depth the interview’s implications for the practice of social work with older adults in terms of process and content.