A Study On The Emotional Needs Of The Elderly Living Alone By Social Work

Along with the deepening of the aging situation of our country,the aging enterprise appears new situation and new question.At present,there is a contradiction between supply and demand between the simple content of support and the emotional needs of the elderly population,and the gap between urban and rural areas is obvious.Under the influence of many factors,such as the weakening of traditional family support function,the development of urbanization,empty-nest,and the adjustment of family structure,the number of elderly living alone is constantly increasing,and the elderly living alone have become a new vulnerable group of the elderly under the rapid development of the current era.Compared with empty-nesters in couples,elderly people living alone lack the support of spouse and children in daily care,and living alone often aggravates their vulnerability in the face of life risks.Relocation community is a special transitional community produced in the process of urban development."Village to residence" has an impact on the lifestyle and psychological level of the elderly living alone.The concept of filial piety based on traditional family support shows signs of de-emoting,and the elderly living alone have difficulties in meeting their emotional needs.Therefore,this paper tries to explore the deep reasons behind the emotional needs of the elderly living alone,and studies the emotional needs of the elderly living alone with the method of social work,in order to achieve a certain value for the development of healthy aging in our country.First of all,this paper conducted an in-depth investigation and analysis of the living situation of the elderly living alone in Y community,and learned that the lack of emotional needs has become a prominent problem facing the elderly living alone in Y community for health care.The elderly living alone in Y community have difficulties such as deviation in self-cognition,lack of spiritual comfort and insufficient life care.This paper discusses the plight of the elderly living alone in Y community in terms of their emotional needs.The "change of village to residence" forces the elderly living alone to face great challenges brought by the new living environment and new lifestyle,which may deepen their plight of insufficient emotional needs.Before the "village change to residence",farming was the main way of life for the elderly living alone.The "village change to residence" makes the elderly lose their land and become urban residents.Due to the lack of other work skills besides farming,they are prone to negative cognition of feeling useless.Through in-depth analysis,it is found that the lack of self-efficacy of the elderly living alone in Y community is the most important reason that hinders the satisfaction of emotional needs.The paper believes that the lack of self-efficacy is mainly caused by individual,family,society and external environment.In the aspect of personal factors,living alone is easy to cause loneliness,and then produce the sense of abandonment;The attenuation of one’s own physiological function affects the attainment of one’s sense of achievement,and then brings negative feedback to one’s self-cognition,such as showing a sense of powerlessness in the face of difficulties and denying the meaning of life.In terms of family factors,the distance between early widower experience and children’s intergenerational space leads to a negative state of life.In terms of social factors,their social identity has changed from "villager" to "city citizen",but the lack of social integration makes them face many difficulties,which leads to insufficient self-efficacy.In terms of external environmental factors,"village to residence" breaks the original interpersonal network of the elderly living alone,resulting in insufficient social interaction and social support.Secondly,ten old people living alone were selected as research samples in this study.Based on the theory of social support and the theory of empowerment,the paper believes that it is appropriate to use the practical method of group work.Based on the theory of social support and the theory of empowerment,the acquaintances’ social space and similar culture in the villages before the demolition of the elderly living alone are taken as favorable social resources,which become the early favorable conditions for building social support.Taking the group as a situational interactive platform,the design of the group content contains factors affecting self-efficacy.The content of the group increases the sense of gain of the elderly living alone in Y community,transforms negative emotions,improves positive feelings,uses internal and external model support,learns encouragement skills for social support and enhancement,improves self-efficacy of the elderly living alone,and meets their emotional needs from all aspects.Finally,the article summarizes and reflects on the emotional needs of social work involved in the elderly living alone.According to the article,First,the satisfaction of emotional needs of elderly people living alone in Y community is closely related to the external environment,social support,coping style and self-efficacy.Second,social work has a good effect on the emotional needs of elderly people living alone in Y community.However,this study also has limitations.Social workers should also pay attention to the differences of the selected samples when carrying out practical intervention.Thirdly,this paper puts forward corresponding countermeasures and suggestions: strengthening the cultivation of the elderly’s subjective initiative;Construct more abundant social support resources to establish service long-term mechanism;Establish a diversified and coordinated system of support services.