Cultivating social work leadership in health promotion and aging: strategies for active aging interventions

The rapid growth of the population of older adults and their concomitant physical status and health needs have captured the attention, collaboration, and funding support of an array of leaders in the fields of aging and health care. To help fill the void of literature available to social workers interested in health promotion and aging, the authors provide a conceptual clarification of the meaning of health and explain how health is a resource for optimal living and not merely the absence of disease. The authors analyze frameworks of health promotion and suggest that the ecological approach provides the ideal framework for devising successful strategies in the area of aging. Finally, using the example of promoting physical activity as a healthy aging strategy, they detail eight ways that social workers can provide leadership in promoting positive health in later life.