A Study On Group Work Intervention For Rural Older People Living Alone In Mutual Help

With the deepening of reform and opening up,China’s social fertility rate has significantly decreased,and individual autonomy has significantly increased,with increasing mobility of children.Influenced by this social development status,the traditional multi-generational cohabitation family model in rural areas has been broken,and family size has tended towards smaller,while the number of elderly people living alone in rural areas has continued to rise and gradually become a group of concern in society.At the same time,constrained by the current system situation of insufficient supply of elderly care resources and a large supply-demand gap in China,and the basic social contradictions between the growing needs of the people for a better life and the unbalanced and insufficient development,the elderly care problems faced by rural elderly people living alone are becoming increasingly prominent.In response to the issue of rural elderly living alone,mutual assistance elderly care model is highly regarded because it can fit into China’s traditional culture,utilize idle resources,and help strengthen the informal support network of elderly living alone.Social work,as a profession that solves social problems and serves vulnerable groups,carries the value concept and professional mission of developing practical activities for mutual assistance elderly care,which is of great practical significance to research and reflect on.Based on the theory of active aging and social support,this article takes the group work practice of mutual assistance elderly care for elderly people living alone in Glian Village,P County,Sichuan Province,as the research object,analyzes the problems and needs of elderly care for elderly people living alone in Glian Village,presents the work process of the mutual assistance elderly care group around "forming mutual assistance consensus","strengthening mutual assistance awareness","discovering and improving mutual assistance abilities","experiencing mutual assistance feelings",and "developing mutual assistance community",and analyzes the social work practice of mutual assistance elderly care for elderly living alone.The study found that the group work method is very helpful in solving the problem of mutual assistance elderly care for rural elderly people living alone.It further meets the elderly living alone’s care needs by disseminating the concept of mutual assistance elderly care,strengthening awareness of mutual assistance elderly care,improving mutual assistance elderly care abilities,and making full use of idle resources.As an effective work method,the application of group work to the practice of mutual assistance elderly care for elderly living alone in rural areas should focus on:(1)constructing support networks,which are key to mutual assistance elderly care for rural elderly living alone;(2)developing resources,which are the premise of mutual assistance elderly care groups for rural elderly living alone;(3)linking the needs of group members,which is the foundation of mutual assistance elderly care for rural elderly living alone;(4)stimulating endogenous motivation,which is the key to realizing mutual assistance elderly care for rural elderly living alone;(5)based on homogenous needs,which ensures the effectiveness of mutual assistance elderly care groups for rural elderly living alone;and(6)generating group dynamics,which is the fundamental to the sustained operation of mutual assistance elderly care groups for rural elderly living alone.In addition,in order to better apply the group work method to the practice of mutual assistance elderly care for elderly living alone in rural areas,this article also proposes relevant countermeasures and suggestions from three perspectives:the government,social work institutions,and service objects,in the hope of providing ideas for the further improvement of the rural mutual assistance elderly care service system.