Group Work In Expanding The Ways Of The Social Participation Of The Elderly With Knowledge

Due to the transformation of social statues and roles of the elderly, willingness and frequency of participation social activities reduce in different degree. Different demands of activities are required because of changes in body and statue, yet these demands can not be satisfied properly for lacking of effective methods providing attractive activities. Elders with knowledge are more willing to join activities focused on spiritual level. They would rather stay at room alone watching newspapers than spare time for those “nonsense” activities. These crowds lack of social activities comparatively.Based on Activity theory, 6 clients of elders with knowledge from the nursing home were gathered as a group to improve their frequency of attending of social activity and social interaction. The activities provided by nursing home were not appealing to the elders that they seldom participated those activities. Under the guidance of activity theory, the group itself provided an option for these senior people to communicate with other people through discussing political events. The second phase of the group was to improve awareness of participation of social activities by summarizing benefits of keeping certain level of social activities participation and how to use knowledge and experience of individual to help with Public welfare activities. The third phase of the group was to encourage members to participate in more activities like those were held by nursing home and provide more approaches to different activities with linkage to outer resources. The three stages helped these elderly participating in more activities and experiencing more interactions with others.Main conclusions of this article: Social participation needs of the elderly with knowledge have a social value orientation; Group work can improve the awareness and ability of the social participation of the elderly with knowledge; Group work for the elderly with knowledge to provide an effective platform for social participation; Development of group dynamics could improve the ability of the elderly with knowledge to expand community participation approaches.