Social Work Intervening In Spiritual Life Insufficiency Of Urban Elderly

Relevant data show that China has entered into the aging period, especially a rapid aging stage at the end of 20 th century. In 21 st century, China will still be an aging society which is irreversible. By investigating living conditions of older age groups under this background, it can be obtained that the material life of old people in city has been guaranteed at present. However, the lack of their spiritual life is becoming more and more serious. This imbalance phenomenon will reduce satisfaction of the elderly to life, then will impact the family harmony degree and even social stability level. Therefore, it is of great significance to study on this problem.The general idea of this research is that using literature review, practical observation and interview methods to find out the outstanding problem on the lack of spiritual life based on some understanding about elderly target groups. Further, the group scheme can be developed, then can be implemented. After group works are evaluated, the experience can be obtained, then some suggestions to solve the problem of urban elderly people’s spiritual life are proposed.By considering professional knowledge of the social work, to enrich the spiritual life of the aged, the elderly from Zhangjiagang elderly apartment is chosen to be the research target. After investigating the current spiritual statement of all tenants in this apartment, the half self-care elderly who is serious lack of spiritual life is identified as the service target. Then the group work method can be used to intervene. The group work is divided into three stages: In the beginning the mainly work is to make the elderly adapt to the group, and to create a warm, harmonious, solidary and positive atmosphere; in middle stage five group activities are carried out, the aim is to meet the needs of the elderly spiritual life, by training the elderly with various interest, and with the help of social power, various activities are organized which allow the elderly to participate in and show heartily; in the end stage two group activities are carried out, by designing some scene team members can express their emotions, and communicating with their offspring so as to weaken the impact of the group and also provide perfect conditions for evacuation. After these group works, the processes and results are assessed, and all elderly are transferred to institutional social workers. By this way, some group activities are retained and developed to daily activities.In this study, a coordinate system is built for the elderly, the horizontal coordinate is the spiritual life content, and the vertical coordinate is the life cycle. Based on the life cycle coordinate system, under different background the group work intervenor method and effect for the elderly are analysed when differentiated services are given. After summing up the experience of group activities, five suggestions to the old people’s spiritual life are put forward: Strengthen the attention to emotional support for the elderly; Provide targeted services according to the elderly status; Strengthen the knowledge study of social work for the organization staff; Create the social environment of “love elderly, respect elderly”; Moreover, the policy of “active pension” is also promoted.