From Birth to Death: The Impact of Attachment Throughout the Lifespan

Older adult clients come into our care following a whole lifetime of experiences that have shaped the way they see the world – relationships, education, work, medical history, losses, psychiatric history. Each client comes to us from a unique set of circumstances with a unique set of needs. Those who have struggled with insecure attachments in their lives are often labeled “Resistant”, “Combative”, “Difficult”, or “Non-compliant”. They often present as angry, stubborn, demanding, and unreasonable, and won’t follow the rules or listen to advice even when it’s to their detriment.

This course identifies the impact of attachment throughout the lifespan, and how our relationships in childhood set a course for the relationship patterns throughout people’s lives. This course teaches social workers strategies for engaging with clients who have a history of insecure attachments. This course also uses case studies and examples for social workers to engage in the process of identifying different reasons for client’s behavior and how to apply the social work strategies to real-life situations.

Goals/Learning Objectives:

1. Identify how an individual’s attachment style impacts their relationships, world view, sense of self, and care throughout the lifespan.
2. Implement strategies that can enhance aging clients’ relationships and attachments, which leads to an increase in positive physical and mental health outcomes.
3. Describe how the development of social workers’ knowledge of healthy attachments can build empathy and impact the effectiveness of social work interventions.