Mental Health in Seniors: Addressing the Silent Struggle

What if I told you there's a group with individuals that each one of us know and love that struggle with mental health more than other groups, yet we never seem to pay attention or address the issues. Well, there is, and that group is senior citizens. Our elders have inherently been through a lot, whether that be societal changes, personal moments of joy, and various challenges. As individuals enter later phases of life, they tend to face new challenges and their mental health gets put but on the back burner, often because of physical health issues, even age related stereotypes or neglect.

And this could be for a few reasons, in our own biases. For one, we may not value them in the same way we do others who are younger, who seem to be contributing more. We devalue what they can bring to society with their wisdom and experience. Also, there's probably other stigmas that people hold, like older people can't change. They are who they are and well, yeah, of course they're going to be sad. They're towards the end of their life and struggling with these things. So really there's not much we could do about it.

It's also important to note that individuals from earlier generations may hold certain attitudes or stigmas towards mental health. They may not have that same modern mental health awareness that we kind of take for granted. Let's be honest, life was probably harder for our grandparents than it was for us. Maybe they needed a little more grit to get through and didn't have that same luxury of being able to connect deeper with their emotions and express their feelings and vulnerabilities. And despite all these issues, that does not mean we should give up.

Senior citizens have given us so much, probably as individuals, but also as a society. They've contributed their hard work, their time, their emotional labor to us, and we owe it to them to make their final years awesome. There's a pretty startling statistic that over 20% of elderly individuals struggle with either a mental health or neurological issue. And there are a lot of barriers to care. For example, a lack of providers that specialize in the geriatric population, or limitations in funding through Medicare, Medicaid, or other ways they can access and fund these resources.

However, despite the barriers and the fact that we don't necessarily think about treating their mental health like we do other folks, there are targeted treatments that work. For example, brief intervention, therapy, or, or medications. The same ones everyone else takes for depression or anxiety are also beneficial for them as well. And just like everyone else, senior citizens benefit from things like connection with others, the variable that makes us happier than anything else. Therefore, it's important to encourage them to be part of different communities, different recreational activities, doing the things that they love, and probably more than just about anyone else.

Senior citizens truly understand the value and importance of family and those close connections. Western culture is so much different in that we tend to isolate our elders, whether it be in senior citizen homes, retirement facilities, or elder care facilities. And that's in opposition to other cultures where it's typically the norm that elders live with their family and they take care of them, and often they help take care of the family and vice versa. This makes closer knit ties. The isolation that we as a society do for our elders is what leads to these higher rates of mental health disorders and lower life satisfaction.

I'm really making this video to remind everybody, including myself, that we ought to treat our seniors with more compassion and empathy. Only if we're lucky will we end up being senior citizens, and we would want that same treatment and care. Really, they are not much different from us except for their bodies. Inside lies a beautiful mind and a beautiful soul. So if you have an older person in your life that you love, especially someone who's struggling, just try to be there for them. And remember to treat them the same way you would anybody else.

If they're experiencing struggles, we as a society truly owe it to our elders to provide them care and the best possible quality of life so they can enjoy those golden years.