• Summary: This article explores models and strategies for developing empowering forms of social work practice with older people.
• Findings: Social work with older people has strong roots in a predominantly medical model in which the primary objective is to ensure that care is provided. While social work with other client groups has made major steps forward in developing less medicalized approaches, the work undertaken with older people has seen far less progress. This article examines the differences between a care model and an empowerment model, identifies some of the barriers standing in the way of movement from one to the other and considers ways of responding to such barriers.
• Applications: The authors identify strategies for developing empowering forms of practice.
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