Older Adults and Covid 19: Social Justice, Disparities, and Social Work Practice.

The Covid- 19 pandemic has brought immense challenges to almost every country as it spreads throughout their populations. Foremost among these challenges is the heightened awareness of inequalities in society and the immense toll that the virus has on the most vulnerable. Globally, older people are the most at risk of getting the virus and dying from the it. Yet, although age is a significant contributor, it is its interaction with other factors, chronic conditions, poverty, and race that makes it a strong determinant. These factors reflect disparities and systemic social injustices that interact to increase the vulnerability of older adults. This paper discusses the many roles that social work, with its focus on social change, injustice, and vulnerable groups can intervene at many levels of practice and with specific groups to alleviate these fundamental disparities.

Comparing Older Persons' Human Rights: Exploratory Study of the International Older Persons' Human Rights Index (IOPHRI).

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Over the last 2 decades, several international indices have been developed to describe the status of older persons. None, however, have examined their human rights. The International Older Persons' Human Rights Index (IOPHRI) fills in this gap by analyzing the formal legislative foundation of human rights for older people. The objective of this exploratory study is to examine the IOPHRI while comparing the legislation in 6 countries. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: A comparative international exploratory study comparing the human rights legislation of 6 countries: United States, Chile, Ireland, South Africa, India, and Australia in 5 different human rights domains: constitutional, protection, familial and informal support, planning, and empowerment. RESULTS: The findings suggest that the actual relationship between formal human rights of older persons and the real world is complex: for example, while the IOPHRI index places South Africa in first place, it is far behind compared with all other participants in the Global AgeWatch Index (which measures objective elements such as life expectancy at 60, or poverty rates in old age). DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Measuring and indexing human rights of older persons reveal significant methodological issues. Beyond these methodological challenges, comparing the ranking of the IOPHRI to nonlegalistic indices raises significant questions about the relationship between formal human rights and the actual living experiences of older persons.

Alzheimer's in the workplace: a challenge for social work.

It is estimated that 5.3 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease or a related disorder (ADRD) with approximately 500,000 of these persons younger than 65. Moreover, the number of people affected by the disease will increase 350% by the middle of this century. Although research exists on organizational policies with regard to caregivers, very little is known about how organizations deal with employees themselves who show symptoms of ADRD. This article reports on a pilot study of employers' responses to dementia as it impacts both caregiving employees and employees who themselves show signs of cognitive impairment.

Empowering African American custodial grandparents.

The increase in grandparent-headed households is receiving much attention as the needs and concerns of these grandparents become more widely known. However, to the extent that services focus on the problems of this population, there is an inherent danger in overlooking their unique strengths and abilities. Empowerment training builds on these strengths to enable people to develop self-efficacy and their own problem-solving skills. In so doing, those empowered grandparents further empower the communities in which they live. This article describes an empowerment training project and its curriculum that was developed for a group of African American grandparents. The program resulted in strengthened parenting skills, and development of the participants into community peer educators.