|
I would first like to commend the Long-Term Services and Supports Standards Task Force for developing a comprehensive and thoughtful revision of these standards. The draft reflects the core values of social work through its emphasis on person-centered practice, strengths-based approaches, trauma-informed care, interdisciplinary collaboration, and advocacy across the continuum of long-term services and supports.
As I reviewed the draft, however, I was struck by the absence of one emerging area of social work practice that I believe merits explicit recognition within the standards: Aging in Recovery.
Over the past several decades, advances in addiction treatment, recovery support services, and mutual-help communities have enabled unprecedented numbers of people to age while living in recovery. As these individuals increasingly access home- and community-based services, assisted living, skilled nursing, hospice, and other long-term services and supports, social workers will encounter a growing population whose recovery is not simply part of their history, but an ongoing source of identity, resilience, social connection, daily structure, and recovery capital.
In my recent work, I have described this emerging population as "The Invisible Cohort" because, despite its growth, it remains largely absent from discussions of aging services, workforce development, long-term care planning, and LTSS policy.
The draft standards appropriately recognize substance use disorders, behavioral health, strengths, resilience, person-centered care, and care transitions. I respectfully suggest that they could be strengthened further by recognizing Aging in Recovery as an emerging area of practice and by encouraging social workers, when relevant and consistent with the wishes of the individual, to consider recovery history, recovery capital, recovery-supportive relationships, and the preservation of recovery-supportive routines during care transitions and long-term service planning.
I believe that this addition would strengthen an already excellent document while preparing the profession for an emerging area of practice that will continue to grow in importance in the decades ahead.
|