Bringing Brightness to the Golden Years: Strategies for Effectively Working With the Elderly
Vanessa Bourgeois, Dipali Bharadwaj, Alina Gheorghian, Christina Hussar, Patricia Rosenberg, & Madeleine Smith
The InTouch Crisis Hotline
The University of Illinois at Chicago
Counseling Center
Chicago, IL
This presentation will cover various mental health issues encountered when dealing with the elder population. Although these problems are not exclusive to the elderly, and often effect the general population, this presentation draws attention to the causes and resulting symptoms as seen in the aged population specifically. This unique experience invokes the need for special interventions targeted specifically at the elder population.
Stereotypes with no factual basis and negative attitudes towards the elderly are common in our society and are obstacles that workers in the field of mental health should be conscious of in order to successfully overcome. Common misconceptions about 'old people' will be identified and corrected in order to rectify this false belief system that exists in people's minds.
Once the truth about the elderly has been established, we will proceed to cover some of the common problems experienced by older people: loneliness and isolation, depression, grief and loss, substance abuse, and elder abuse. Isolation is a pervading problem with the aging population and crisis intervention workers can help reduce the negative impact it has through preventative techniques. Depression is one of the most common psychological disorders today. The phenomenon and its repercussions as it touches the elder population will be covered in detail. Grief and loss in the elderly can stem from a wide array of sources: widowhood, memory loss, reduced functional and financial independence, and most commonly, the deterioration of health. The psychological impact of these losses as well as methods of helping elders cope with them will be discussed. Also covered will be a phenomenon rarely spoken of in context to the elderly - substance abuse. The shockingly high rate of substance abuse will be explained and appropriate intervention techniques discussed. Finally, we will draw attention to various types of abuse that are perpetrated towards elders and the immense psychological impact that they have on the victims.
Crisis intervention workers can provide the victims with services to help them cope with or escape the situation. Each of these topics will be looked at in detail to explore factors leading up to the condition, the actual condition itself as experienced by the patient, and finally, treatments methods and intervention techniques based in research as well as interviews with intervention workers of agencies working with elders.
To return to the Table of Contents, click here.