Research On The Team Work Intervention With The Elderly’s Mental Health In The Community

At present, China has entered an aging society, and moreover, with the rapid development of economy as well as the improvement of social security system, the problem of economically supporting the majority of senior citizens has been basically solved, but there are still various problems in the aspect of supporting senior citizens with cultural activities and entertainments, the problem of establishing and improving a system for caring about senior citizens’ mental health remains to be solved urgently. The purpose of this research paper is to study about the methods and channels for group work to intervene in senior citizens’ mental health based on the analysis about the existing problems and reasons of senior citizens’mental health.In this paper, based on the relevant literature about this topic and from the theoretical perspectives of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Society Ecosystems Theory, senior citizens in X community in Shenyang are selected as main research objects so as to discuss about the implementation of group work intervening in the services for senior citizens’mental health. Three methods are used in this paper, including questionnaire survey, survey scales and direct interview,100 senior citizens in X community are investigated with 31 questions in 8 categories, and moreover,15 senior citizens are invited to join in face-to-face interviews, in order to know about the general situation of the spiritual life of senior citizens in X community with regard to family feeling, community engagement, leisure life, etc. It is found that there are many problems in senior citizens’ mental health, such as a strong sense of pessimism and disappointment, having difficulties in getting involved in social activities, a feeling of uselessness and a strong sense of inferiority, etc. Moreover, an analysis is made on the causes for the existing problems in senior citizens’ mental health from four aspects, including poor physical conditions, weak ability of mentally supporting themselves, lack of care from family members and insufficient social care.This paper is oriented by senior citizens’ mental health, and the method of group work is used to intervene in senior citizens in the community by means of predicting the spiritual needs of senior citizens in X community, determining the goals of group work, designing and implementing the plan of group work on three levels:social workers and group members; social workers, community workers and group members; social workers, social volunteers and group members, with the purpose of gradually improving the degree of senior citizens’ social interaction with other people, with the community and with the society, changing the lonely lifestyle of senior citizens in the community, improving their ability of spiritual healing by themselves, setting up a network for senior citizens to communicate and help each other and enhancing their sense of belonging and sense of self-fulfillment. And moreover, a process of evaluation and termination is finally carried out for group work.In the final part of this paper, the relevant suggestion of "Four in One" (family, community, society and social workers) to solve the problem of senior citizens’ mental health is put forward from the perspective of social work.