In many European countries a climate of austerity and cuts to health and social care budgets, alongside issues of population ageing, are creating particular challenges in the provision of services for older people in the community (Lymbery and Postle, 2015; Donnelley, Begley and O’Brien, 2018). The introduction of neoliberalism into many European welfare states since the late 1990s has also meant challenges in terms of the reorganisation of social work policy and practice (Milner, Myers and O’Byrne, 2020). Budget cuts have taken place and standardisation has become commonplace, which has impacted on changing legislative and policy drivers for gerontological social work (Ray, Bernard and Phillips, 2018). Social workers have a key role to play in ensuring the participation of all older people in assessments, care planning and decision making in ways that uphold human rights, autonomy and self-determination. The application of a critical gerontological lens is particularly important in a context of neoliberalism and scarce resources, where social workers are increasingly reliant on informal caregivers, mainly family members, to provide care and support to older people, creating challenges and ethical dilemmas in practice situations.

As authors of this chapter, our writing has been influenced and shaped by our backgrounds as social work practitioners in the field of gerontological social work, and also as academics. Moreover, our experiences also originate from different social work traditions: Sweden (Olaison) and Ireland (Donnelly). This chapter will examine the impact that practice models and assessment instruments have on social work interventions within the context of the move towards a rights-based approach to care planning with older people and supported decision making. The chapter concludes with a helpful checklist for students and practitioners on ‘Best practices in care planning meetings’ with older people.

Assessment

Good-quality assessment has long been recognised as the cornerstone of effective social work practice and should be a dynamic process that is undertaken with the older person and their carer and/ or significant others (Nelson Becker et al, 2020).

A global transformation is taking place as the world's population is rapidly ageing and, for the first time in history, most people can expect to live into their 60s and beyond. It is therefore understandable that one of the latest reports written by the Population Division of the United Nations’ Department of Economic and Social Affairs begins with the following statement:

While the demographic shift that we call population ageing started in highincome countries, low-and middle-income countries are experiencing the greatest change now (WHO, 2015). As a demographic transition, population ageing is of interest and concern to scholars, policy makers and practitioners in an array of spheres, since the rapid ageing of populations around the world means that health, labour supply and economic growth-related challenges will arise. This is why population ageing, and the globalisation of international migration, are societal trends that all of us who are involved in gerontological research, policy and practice must reckon with (Lawrence and Torres, 2016; Torres, 2019). Both trends are, of course, cause for celebration, since the fact that more of us are living to reach advanced old age is an achievement for humankind, and increased diversity can expand our imagination in more ways than we can imagine. An array of challenges are, however, posed by these trends, since they affect not only societies and the welfare systems we rely on to provide us with help in difficult times but also the social work profession in particular.

Working on an edited collection, especially in the midst of a pandemic, with all of the professional and personal challenges that we and our contributors have experienced, has been challenging, but also more stimulating than we had anticipated. An edited collection is always a collective effort that is often generated through a series of serendipitous moments, and when one works along with so many scholars who also have a background as social workers one cannot help but feel energised. When reflecting on how this book came to be, we can, however, clearly trace its original conceptualisation back to April 2018 and the European Conference for Social Work Research that took place in Edinburgh. Discussions during the Special Interest Group for Gerontological Social Work (or the European Network for Gerontological Social Work as it later became known as) identified the need for a book that approached gerontological social work from an angle that aimed to empower social work scholars, policy makers and practitioners. As a group we were frustrated about the lack of status and attention given to social work with older people generally, and, parallel to this, we had concerns relating to ageism experienced by older people in our communities and societies stemming from increased neoliberal, reductionist social policies in many countries across Europe. While there were several excellent published texts relating to social work and older people, we felt that there was gap for a book with a critical lens, which would act as a call to arms to the social work profession, encouraging an embracement of the activist and social justice mandate.

Firstly, we must thank Professor Mo Ray and Professor Marjaana Seppänen for their incredible vision and leadership in establishing the Gerontological Social Work Special Interest Group/European Network for Gerontological Social Work in the first place. We would also like to sincerely thank and acknowledge Marjaana, Professor Janet Anand and Dr Anna Olaison for their important contributions to the initial conceptualisation of this book project. Marjaana spent part of her sabbatical at the Department of Sociology, Uppsala University – which houses the Centre for Social Work – with one of us (Sandra) and together they did the thorough inventory of the book market that is always needed when formulating how the book we were planning would differentiate itself from what was already available.