Older people’s strategies for meaningful social interactions in the context of eldercare services

Considering that ‘social work with older people’ refers to something that is carried out with older people, it is of crucial importance to reveal the meaning of ‘the social’ from the perspective of the elderly. The aim of this article is to reveal how older people go about achieving meaningful social interactions in everyday life in the context of eldercare services and the role of social work practice within this area. Twenty-six older people have been included in 24 open semi-structured interviews. Prominent features in the findings are that care recipients in eldercare services develop strategies to create a sense of meaningfulness. This is a new dimension of ‘self-created’ person-centred care. The conclusions drawn are that while social work for older people involves someone in charge of something for somebody else, social work with older people indicates an unconditioned practice beyond the performance of services.