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Geriatric Depression Research Paper

1421 Words6 Pages

Old age is the period of ages nearing or surpassing the average life span of human being. Depression is a most prevalent mental health problem of senior citizens. The emerging changes in our social and cultural changes affect the mental health status of the older persons. They have signs of depression like isolation, withdrawal, and insecurity feeling, insomnia, hopeless, loneliness etc.The social work methods like case work, group work and social work research helps to identify their needs, causes of their problems, utilizations and importance of welfare measures. Social work interventions play an important role to prevent the suicidal thoughts of the senior citizens. This study deals with geriatric depression among the senior citizens. …show more content…

More than 7% of our country’s population is older persons. It’s due to the advancement in medicine and health care meseaures. Old age, which is inevitable in one’s life, each one should accept and realize the reality of aging. The physical and psychological changes are inevitable. The problem faced by them are several in the society, family, health etc., which makes them isolated from all means of life. Geriatric mental health is a emerging as an important public health concern. According to Word Health Organization, prevalence of depression in adults age >60 years in developed and developing countries was 0.5 million and 4.8 million respectively in 2070. Depression is a state of activity than can affect the persons thought, behavior and they felt guilty, irritable, helpless, problem with their sleeping etc. The major signs and symptoms of depression in the elderly such as Empty feeling, sadness, fatigue, sleep disturbance, social withdrawal, isolation, loss of appetite and repeated thought of death and suicide. Depression in older adults and elderly is often linked to physical illness. Symptoms of depression can also occur as part of medical problems such as dementia. The causes of depression in the elderly are mainly due to the physical and biological changes of the elderly that can put at risk for depression. The causative factors that contribute to depression in older adults …show more content…

A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted in village of sebakkam, kanccheepuram Distric in Tamil Nadu. The results of the study indicated that 70.9 per cent were aged above 60-69 years and 56.3 per cent were male. 42.7 per cent of the respondents were found to be depressed. Female sex and widowhood were significantly associated with

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