Adultism: Personal Experience and Professional Role

Consider these scenarios:

You are a social worker and just started working at a local mental health agency. Your client is several years older and he or she asks you how old you are.

In a meeting with a much younger client, the teenage girl looks at you and blurts out, “You are too old to understand anything about what I am dealing with.”

How might you react and respond in those two scenarios?

Judgments about someone’s capabilities due to how old they look are made every day. Both young and older people are disrespected due to bias around their perceived lack of abilities. Additionally, these prejudices are often internalized, impacting the way these individuals feel about themselves. This internalized oppression diminishes their sense of self-confidence and self-esteem and often equates to unnecessary self-defined limits. Youth are constantly in a position in which their actions are controlled and their voices are stifled. Similarly, the elderly are ignored, hidden away, and, at worst, abused. They are often targeted for maltreatment and marketing scams due to their perceived vulnerabilities. You will be asked to consider your own experiences with either of these issues and how as a social worker you might mitigate the marginalization of these groups.

Consider your own experiences with ageism and adultism. Did any topic or subtopic related to ageism or adultism you encountered this week surprise you?

Post a 400 word responce in your journal, explaining a specific example of ageism or adultism that might have occurred in your life or in the life of someone you know. Describe how the experience affected you or the person you know. Then explain how you as a social worker might support younger clients facing adultism or elderly clients facing ageism as they work toward the goals they have set for themselves.

Please use references

Poverty in Young and Middle Adulthood

Poverty has a strong influence on the lives of adults. When an adult lives in poverty, the effects extend beyond that individual to all those who depend on the adult. The problem of poverty in the life of an adult becomes a family or community problem, and few social problems are more impactful than poverty.

As a social worker, you are likely to address the needs of clients whose adverse circumstances are strongly influenced by poverty. Increasing your understanding of poverty and its influence will equip to you to better understand and assist your clients.

As you read this week’s resources, select the theory of poverty that most resonates with you to address in your Discussion post for this week.

include the following:

• An explanation of how poverty impacts the experience of individuals in young and middle adulthood
• A statement as to whether you think poverty is the result of cultural or individual. characteristics; provide support for your position
• An answer to the following questions about the theory of poverty you selected:
  • What aspects of this theory would be most suitable for your practice? Why?
  • What aspects of this theory do you find problematic in terms of your knowledge of social work practice? Explain.

Be sure to support your posts with specific references to the resources. If you are using additional articles, be sure to provide full APA-formatted citations for your references. 

250 words at least