A Case Study Of Medical Social Work Alleviating Loneliness In Empty-nesters

With the increasing miniaturization of family size and the arrival of aging period,more and more elderly people become empty nesters.The spiritual needs of these empty nester cannot be met due to the lack of children’s company.Loneliness occurs when the elderly feel unable to get a satisfying emotional connection from their family.Especially in the face of the disease crisis,the physical torture,even more weight of the experience of loneliness.Therefore,empty-nesters need spiritual comfort while treating diseases.Medical social work also has medical knowledge and caring ability.As a bridge of communication between doctors and patients,medical social work should take the initiative to pay attention to the psychological and spiritual needs of empty-nesters during hospitalization and conduct emotional counseling.This paper takes hospitalized empty-nesters as the research object.Firstly,the loneliness scale of 32 empty-nesters in the Geriatrics Department of X Hospital was used to measure the degree of loneliness.On this basis,five empty-nesters were interviewed in depth,and the common reasons for loneliness in hospital period were summarized,and then the case intervention process of one of the empty-nesters was presented.Through six case services,we corrected irrational beliefs,diverted lonely attention,enhanced self-worth,and built a hospital support network,thus achieving the service goal of alleviating the loneliness of the service objects.Finally,the author summarized and reflected on the practical process,and put forward the following suggestions from the two aspects of medical social work and hospital: to promote the cooperative mode of medical community in ward,to attach importance to mental health counseling in hospital,and to carry out continuous services.