Effective counselling for senior citizens to cope up with drastic changes in life
It has been well
observed that management of elderly folks is quite challenging and complex
because there are numerous changes occur in the life of senior citizens. These changes may grip senior citizens to
experience anxiety or depression. Some
physical vicissitudes also degrade their life like slowing down of physical
activity, weak eye sight, hearing or dealing with chronic illnesses or
pain. Social changes can also affect
senior citizens mental health. Major
mental threatening condition foe senior citizen is the loss of a spouse, other
family member or close friends. In such
conditions, adjustment is very nerve-wracking. Therefore, counsellors are more
involved in offering good psychotherapeutic techniques to make life of senior
citizen better.
Simply stating, the
main problems of the senior citizens are health problems, financial problems,
poverty, addiction, social exclusion, retirement, the ageism, abuse.
Senior citizens are
at risk of several mental health disorders.
These include:
Depression
Anxiety
Dementia
Alzheimer’s Disorder
But major health concern for senior citizen is
depression. It may be due to lack of psychological support, presence of chronic
diseases, family conflicts. Both individual and group counselling are available
for senior citizens who wants to seek mental health treatment. In individual counselling
sessions, clients can discuss thoughts and feelings freely. Group counselling is
also successful for elderly group and it provides an additional benefit of
decreased isolation through interaction among members.
To facilitate senior citizens, relationship counselling
is effective as they can freely express their problems, situation,
relationships and even entire past with counsellors. Counsellor’s role is to
help elders through a game of questions and answers to resolve issues.
Main feature of counsellors is to facilitate
understanding, change, and acceptance of new situations, to overcome some dramatic
moments, integration and development. With the help of counsellors, senior citizens
may explore and elucidate the strengths and weaknesses, to augment their
quality of life.
Counsellors must be aware of the social context in which
their older adult clients exist and the challenges of navigating an ageist
world. Additionally, modifications to therapy may be necessary due to caregiving
issues or living situation. To counsel the elderly people, the speech-language
pathologist must help them make successful adjustments to the normal aging
process. For positive results in counselling process, counselling must address
the effects of the pathology on tertiary aging factors.
At bottom line, senior citizens experience lots of mental
issues and they need empathetic attitude from society, family. Well adept counsellors
have pivotal role in lessening major problems such cognitive decline. Counsellor
can extend physical, mental, and emotional support to older clients.
Important: This article is developed through environmental information and personal view of writer. Writer is not responsible for any disagreement.
Important: This article is developed through environmental information and personal view of writer. Writer is not responsible for any disagreement.
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