Geriatric mental health has always been a cause that I’ve been passionate about. Ever since I started volunteering at Hotel Dieu Grace Healthcare four years ago, I’ve been driven to learn more and more about this cause. When talking about mental health, seniors, age 65 and up, often tend to be neglected and ignored. Why? Ageism. People hold the misconception that neurodegenerative and neurocognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are normal for people as they get older. This is problematic because it diminishes the quality of care and attention that this age cohort receives.
Senior citizens make up a sizeable chunk of the population which is why it is so important that their issues are understood and they receive quality care. Stigma and the uncertainty surrounding mental health issues also prevents several citizens from receiving the care and attention they need. They feel ashamed of their issues, because there are often times no “physical” symptoms of these disorders which is why it’s not considered to be “serious.” However, this is problematic, because it prevents treatment and many of them spend every day living with mental health issues.
In addition, there’s still a lot of ignorance surrounding this. I know of several clinics and health centres devoted to helping teens and adults, however, there are few services aimed at helping senior citizens. In rural areas in particular, there is a dire need for mental health resources for geriatric patients. The first step to ensuring that this problem gets resolved is to educate the families of senior citizens via informative pamphlets, building better facilities devoted solely to this age cohort (therapy, psychopharmacological services, etc.), and then making these facilities accessible to everyone, particularly to rural communities.
By taking small steps, we can progress to a better, more informed, and progressive society that is able to understand and assist this age cohort. For more information, please check out this post by the American Mental Health Counselors Association, regarding older mental health: http://connections.amhca.org/blogs/joel-miller/2016/02/16/why-older-adul…