Ageing and the Good Things of Life: The Application of Social Role Valorization

Ageing and the Good Things of Life: The Application of SRV to Supporting People as They Age

Editors: Ronda Held, John Armstrong, Raymond Lemay and Susan Thomas.

 

As they age, many people lose valued social roles and their value in the eyes of others and this creates the risk of other bad things happening to them. They get cast into negative roles, such as burdensome, dependent, child once again, or object of pity. They get surrounded by negative imagery that interprets them as useless, sick, and as good as dead. They get rejected and put at physical and social distance from the larger society. These things lead to declines in competence and health, reduced well-being, even abbreviation of life itself.

This book addresses the plight of older people by looking at how they are valued in society, and the roles they are given and permitted to fill. It proposes the creation and the support of valued social roles for older people as key to their getting and holding on to the good things of life. This is embodied in a service principle called Social Role Valorization, or SRV.