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This paper traces the emergence of, and responses to, the phenomenon known as elder abuse and neglect in Aotearoa New Zealand and considers where to from here.

Citizenship Social Work with Older People is a recent contribution to the literature by internationally-published social work author, Malcolm Payne. This text extends thinking in relation to practice with older people by including the notion of citizenship; the "idea that older people are equal citizens [and] that citizenship confers rights to participation in and responsibilities for older people" (p. ix). Social inclusion is fundamental to both citizenship and to the profession, and is central to this text. Payne suggests that while the rhetoric of rights pervades society (and social work practice), the application of a citizenship approach is not consistently applied. A challenge offered to readers is to reflect on their attitudes towards older people and the way society and services (within which practitioners are embedded) categorise and respond to the needs of older people.The formative chapters explore the social context of practice with older people, the role of social work with elders, and circumstances which may lead to older people being excluded from fully participating in society. Payne poses questions about how practitioners can facilitate older people's full participation in decision making.Supported by case studies, Payne encourages readers to explore personal beliefs and attitudes towards older people, and society's construction(s) of ageing. Presented are implications, such as segregation and exclusion, for policy and practice derived from societal constructions. While this discussion offers little in the way of "new" ideas for social work, Payne writes with the beginning social worker in mind. In so doing he offers previously documented theories, demographics and models of ageing in an easy to read format. Incorporated are "pause and reflect" sections designed to develop practitioners' reflective skills. This use of reflection is a helpful approach, one which broadens the value of the text beyond the content focus.According to Payne, collaborative partnerships are critical in a mixed economy of social service delivery, since partnership practice offers greater potential for relevant focused work. Payne particularly espouses an integrated approach to practice based on the (sometimes) complex nature of older people's lives and the neo-liberal market approach to public care. The role of the practitioner, he claims, is to facilitate, using skills to develop and maintain partnerships with and between agencies, and importantly, with older people themselves. This approach is to ensure client agency, independence, and quality of life are at the forefront of practice interventions.Linked to partnership is a critical perspective, which Payne introduces in Chapter 5. The focus here is on how practitioners apply critical thinking and action to their practice; an approach which fits with the overall citizenship theme of the text. Payne identifies the need for practitioners to have skills and knowledge to robustly examine policy and service delivery models. Payne argues that this combination of knowledge an...

Across the past three decades a growing national and international concern about elder abuse is evident in policy, research and social and health care practice. There is currently a considerable body of literature on prevalence, predictors and risk factors as well as debates about definitions, conceptualisations and appropriate legal, policy and practice responses. There is more limited research on how the conceptualisations of ageing and elder abuse shape professional practice. Knowledge use and social work practice in elder abuse in the context of Aotearoa/New Zealand is the focus of this thesis.This thesis presents a qualitative exploratory study of elder abuse practice as reported by twenty social workers engaged in frontline elder abuse work throughout Aotearoa/New Zealand. The purposive sample of social workers practised in a variety of settings and were situated in different geographic locations across the country. The primary focus of this study is to explore how elder abuse is understood, how cases of In individual semi-structured interviews, participants were asked to describe their understandings of elder abuse, to explore the knowledge they use to inform these understandings, and to give details about what actions they take when encountering situations of abuse.An interpretative, social constructionist approach to this research was taken. All twenty accounts of practice were analysed thematically. This provided a means by which the processes of, and influences on, meaning, knowledge use and response-making could be scrutinised, and an understanding of elder abuse practice in Aotearoa/New Zealand could be discerned.The findings indicate that the term 'elder abuse' is universally recognised and articulated in practice, but when explored in depth, understandings about what constitutes elder abuse varied, were dependent on the knowledge individual social ii | P a g e workers brought to their practice, and on the context in which the practice occurred. This knowledge was not always explicitly used and consequently was often left unscrutinised. The use of tacit knowledge was seen to facilitate the establishment of patterns of practice that have become customary and are left unchallenged.The influence of the context on what could or could not be done to respond to elder abuse was acknowledged by many of these social workers. Beyond the immediate resource constraints that were recognised as limiting their options to address abuse, the significance of the socio-economic-historic-cultural-political context and how this informed and shaped social work practice (and the experiences of older people) were not readily identified by most. When these factors were noted, they were largely considered to be insurmountable.The findings from this study highlight that a narrow approach is taken by most of the social workers in this study when working with older people who are abused. There is little demonstrated understanding the socio/political context in which the abuse occurs, and the systemic issues that may co...

Each of the contributing articles present readable and satisfying studies or reflections on their stated topics. This ranges from siblings of children with disabilities, older gay people, lookedafter children, families of people with problematic substance use and people with dementia and chronic illness. Some of the most interesting insights came from Liz Walker's essay on HIV/AIDS where she included descriptions of how workers also experience disadvantage by association. Here the workers, families, children and individuals living with HIV/AIDS in African countries all acknowledged the stigma of contagion and disease. This raises some intriguing questions about any social worker's experience of working with marginalised, vulnerable and stigmatised populations and how much we as workers either suffer from a parallel disadvantage or perpetuate disadvantage by association.