Reflective Journal
Reinventing Aging: Baby Boomers and Civic Engagement.Links to an external site. Harvard School of Public Health - MetLife Foundation, Initiative on Retirement and Civic Engagement.
Chapters 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7
Mancini & Bleszner, (1989). Aging parents and adult children: Research themes in intergenerational relationships. Journal of Marriage and Family, 51, 275-290.
Available through ERes.
This will provide you with a broad overview of expectations for the aging Baby Boomer cohort, currently the largest cohort of aging adults. We have alluded to the unique needs of this cohort and this study will solidify many of the hypotheses to which we have made reference.
Reflective Journal Prompt
Your assignment is to envision your own cohort, explore and examine the demographics and make some hypotheses and assumptions of your own for your age group as it ages. This will require you to use your creativity and to put on your social work lens.
1. What services that are currently not offered in your community will be a necessity?
2. Might there be unique healthcare issues and what options to address these needs will be required for your generation?
3. As a social worker at an agency that provides services for the elderly, what do you think will be the primary needs of your constituents? How can the social work profession take a leadership role in addressing these needs?
4. How do you imagine your own life when you are 65 years of age or older? What would you want from your community? Friends? Family members?