Gerontological Social Work

The gerontological social work is considered as a profession of social work to help elderly and their families. One of the beliefs of the population is an alarm increasing in the elderly population.
Demographers predict that the elderly population will increase to 2 billion people by 2050. However, many elderly are faced with poverty and other problems such as limited access to health care services. It seems that social work services are faced with a wide range of demands to meet the needs of this growing population. In this review article, we discuss the importance of gerontological Social Work and then we introduce the role of gerontological social workers and their challenges.
In this study, articles, books and documents related with the gerontological social work were reviewed based on library and documentary method.
In general, gerontological social work services include a range of institutional care to community-based care. These services include case management, crisis intervention, mental health care, daily care, elderly daily centers and home assistance. Of course there is more interest in community-based services, because the purpose of community-based services is, enabling the elderly to aging in their homes and workplaces.
Awareness of the role and activities of gerontological social workers will lead to greater use of the ability of workers to help seniors and their families to cope and adapt and coexist with complex situations.