Group Work Intervention Study On Emotional Support Of Elderly Widowed Women

Nowadays,China’s population aging is still in the stage of accelerated development,living in retirement communities or institutions has become a more popular choice in the accelerated stage of aging.The elderly widowed women living in the urban retirement communities,their material conditions of living can be basically satisfied,but the problems in emotional support are gradually prominent.The death of spouse,separation from children and the decline of physiological and psychological functions lead to the vacancy of emotional support and the aggravation of loneliness of elderly widowed women,which has a serious impact on their later life.Therefore,attention should be paid to the emotional support of elderly widowed women living in cities.Based on the perspective of social work,this thesis takes the elderly widowed women in C retirement community in Suzhou as the research object.Firstly,the author analyzed the emotional support problems and influencing factors of elderly widowed women in the community through the literature research method,the field research method,scale method,observation method and semi-structured interview method.The study found that the elderly widowed women in the community have the problems of low self-identity,lack of emotional sustenance,single leisure and entertainment activities and imperfect community support network under the influence of personal physical quality decline,insufficient family communication,and lack of peer care as well as low level of community service.Secondly,by consulting the archives of the elderly in the community,the author selected 43 elderly widows over 60 years old in the community.Then the author distributed the UCLA Loneliness Scale to this group.According to the evaluation of the scale,home visits and conversations with the elderly,as well as the evaluation of the elderly’s physical condition,willingness to participate and personal spare time,the author finally selected 6 elderly women who had been widowed for less than 3 years and had a high sense of loneliness as the service objects.Under the guidance of Feminist Care Ethics,Symbolic Interaction Theory and Social Support Theory,this thesis uses the group work method to intervene in the emotional support of elderly widowed women.The intervention program starts with the elderly widowed women’s self-awareness,family support,friend neighborhood support and community support,aiming to help the elderly improve their self-awareness,enhance their sense of self-worth and form a positive self-concept;it also aims to promote mutual care among the elderly,between the elderly and their families,and between the elderly and the community,and build an emotional support network based on family,neighborhood and community.According to the objectives of the group,this group activity has eight sections.After the activity,the author used UCLA Loneliness Scale to post test the team members again,and used the group activity satisfaction questionnaire to analyze the satisfaction of team members and the achievement of group goals.The evaluation found that this group activity has achieved good results in alleviating the emotional loneliness of urban elderly widowed women and building an emotional support network,and the group goal has been basically achieved.In the reflection stage,the author realizes that there are some deficiencies in the intervention of group work.For example,the group activities can not pay attention to the personalized needs of the elderly,the design of the activity scheme ignores the macro support system such as the government,the overall control of social workers on the activity time and the response to the empathy of team members need to be improved.On this basis,the author puts forward corresponding suggestions to improve the life well-being of elderly widowed women,such as improving the self-awareness of the elderly,excavating potential advantages and subject values of the elderly;Improving the professional skills of social workers and providing high-quality services;Creating a harmonious and warm atmosphere in the community and providing a comfortable living environment;Linking government resources and proposing the government to provide policy,finance and social work talent guarantee.