ABSTRACT
Person-environment fit is a basic principle in both social work practice and the ecological model of human aging. This chapter describes how older adults’ reporting, even and perhaps especially in a semi-structured survey, can serve as a potent corrective. It offers suggestions for research and practice with this population in the COVID-19 pandemic. Lay accounts are shaped more by individual and collective narratives, at times expressed as culture-specific “idioms of distress.” These accounts emanate from an intrinsic human need to find logic and meaning in one’s experiences and to have others ratify, share, and even act on their stories. It is unclear why older adults are at higher risk of serious disease and death from COVID-19. Gerontologists have a scientific lexicon for the processes and outcomes of stress, environmental press, weathering, allostatic load and depletion.
