In 2011, the first baby boomers reached age 65 beginning what is called the “gray tsunami.” Many of these individuals will have increased medical needs as they age and thus demand more health care resources than other segments of the population. Due to their sheer numbers, and the multiplier effect of the generation’s increased longevity, experts anticipate the need for a much larger workforce to care for this aging population, as well as ways to make care more efficient. Reducing health care expenses and improving quality, along with strategies to prevent acute illness and improve health management, are important.
Baby boomers suffer from more chronic disease brought on by the 20th century’s white-collar culture and resulting sedentary lifestyle. They are plagued by high blood pressure, diabetes, alcoholism, lung cancer, and heart disease. Because they have higher levels of education and engage in more active consumerism than previous generations, the baby boomers are accelerating a movement toward patient self-management of chronic disease. To effectively take on this responsibility, however, they will need efficient means of personal health information management, which includes managing personal health data and finding and using consumer health information. As a result, the need for better tools to support patient self-management of health and information will increase substantially and require an integrated team of health care professionals including social workers.
Transforming clinical care to include treating baby boomers into advanced old age and coaching them in self-care techniques for managing chronic conditions offers numerous benefits for both the elderly patients and their providers. Paraprofessionals such as community health workers and peer support specialists, who offer care management, social support, and skill-building services, play an important role in integrated care for baby boomers. The use of these supports has been shown to improve behavioral health access and outcomes across all age groups that make up the baby boomer generation.
When social workers were able to connect physical and behavioral health treatment, baby boomers become better engaged in their own health and well-being. Social workers identified three basic tasks that they were performing as part of integrated care teams: 1.) Motivational interviewing, 2.) Warm hand-off, 3.) Medication management.
As this historic generation has aged into their seventies and eighties their unique health care needs have emerged and surprised medical providers. The sheer number of elderly and their longevity has sparked a multiplier effect that has overwhelmed caregivers and, what’s more, their modern lifestyle has burdened them with chronic health issues that require constant monitoring and treatment. Slowly, integrated team care has emerged as the solution with social workers a new but essential part of the integrated care team.
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