Seniors face mental health challenges, but support is available

From KACU:

Mental health struggles in older adults are sometimes brushed off or just considered a normal part of aging.

For older adults, reduced mobility and cognitive abilities can limit their socializing and leave them isolated from their loved ones.

As we age, our social circle can shrink, with time taking away family members, friends, and partners.
Aimee Colley, director of Abilene Christian University’s gerontology center, says these feelings of grief and loneliness can affect mental health.

“Depression and anxiety and loneliness do not have to be a normal part of normal aging,” Colley said.

Leaving an older adult’s mental health unaddressed can have tragic consequences. A recent CDC analysis showed that males aged 85 years and older average almost four times as many suicide deaths as the rest of the population.

The numbers clearly show that older adults struggle with their mental health, but even so, Colley said those issues often go undiagnosed.

This is something geriatrics and gerontology professionals are thinking about a lot right now. Colley said, that’s because, in the next five years, all baby boomers will reach 65 and older, becoming the largest elderly population the United States has ever seen.

For friends and caretakers, Colley said it’s important to avoid social isolation before it becomes a clinical issue.

“Even when that doesn’t always feel easy because it might be difficult, physically, or just fatigue,” Colley said.

For older adults, “getting out” can take many forms.

“It can mean that they have to be an active participant in maybe asking a church member to pick them up and take them to church, or pursuing going to the senior center a couple of times a week,” Colley said.

There are also times when older adults are less likely to recognize their mental health needs, and they may be less open to asking for help. That includes times when they’re dealing with physical health problems.

Shana Gassiot is part of the mobile outreach team at the Betty Hardwick Center, which provides mental health services around Abilene.

Gassiot said it’s important to get medical clearance first when assessing an older adult’s mental health, because medical issues can present like psychological ones.

“Sometimes with an older population, a UTI, a urinary tract infection, is something that can make someone look like they are dealing with symptoms, such as mental health or dementia,” Gassiot said.

She said sometimes, the issue really is as simple as something like a UTI or a medication change.

Once that issue is treated, older adults can get back to being their normal self.

“And then if there is something medically related, then we get that addressed, and then we reassess, and we look at the picture again because the landscaping changes sometimes,” Gassiot said.

Ruling out the medical side and then circling back to mental health is key to making sure that an older adult is not neglected mentally or physically.

ACU’s Aimee Colley said that older adults may face challenges navigating changing family roles. For instance, they may feel hesitant to accept help from their children, whom they once prided themselves on caring for. The key here is for family members to be supportive.

“In the long run, all you can do is encourage, be present when you can, continue to show up yourself,” Colley said. “But ultimately, that person you know has to make their own decisions and determine what’s best for them as long as they’re cognitively able to do that.”

Gassiot said it’s important to be involved in an older friend or relative’s life as much as possible, even when they say everything is okay. She said it goes beyond just being present and keeping in touch.

“If you don’t know what’s going on, then it’s hard for you to recognize that they may be going down a path that you could address early on instead of, you know, letting that get to a point where it’s going to be hard to manage,” Gassiot said.

She recommended paying attention to unhealthy sleeping patterns, decreased or increased appetite, mood changes, and a decreased interest in activities or social interactions.

These are all of these signs of declining mental health, ones that don’t have to be tolerated as people age.

This story was produced in partnership with the West Texas Tribune.

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