Social Work in Institutional Care for Older Adults: Transforming Medically Oriented Homes for the Older People into Community-oriented Care Centres

In recent years, demographical changes have posed a significant interest for social work. The primary aim of social work as a science and as a profession is to ensure the social participation of all people on all levels of society: micro, meso and macro. Social work is therefore connected not just with individuals and families, but also with communities and society as a whole. This paper presents how this characteristic of social work in homes for the older people infl uence on the transformation of Slovenian institutional care from primary residential care to centres of care for the older people. Th e signifi cant impact is in the diff erence of social work between socially and medically oriented homes. Th e diff erence lies in social work methods as well as in the roles of the social worker in different areas of work with the residents, relatives and staff . This approach enables the provision of holistic care for the older people in institutions and in the community. Slovenian homes for the older people with existing and planned forms of assistance in the community demonstrate that institutional care is not necessarily linked only to the classical care in an institution. The transformation of homes enables the development of new forms of care for older adults both inside and outside each home for the older peopl