The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : ‘Elders need care and concern by family, society’

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Friday, Jul 11, 2008
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Kerala - Kochi

‘Elders need care and concern by family, society’

Staff Reporter

Enjoying togetherness: Senior citizens at the Elders’ Forum Park in Panampilly Nagar in Kochi.

KOCHI: Old age is dreaded by most people. The reasons are not far to seek. It is a stage in one’s life when one feels that one is no longer useful to the family and the society at large. This sets him or her on the path to depression and even bigger psychiatric disorders. It is also a period when one will have to depend on others for his needs. Better care and concern by the family and society can bring about a change in the situation, says city-based psychiatrist C.J. John.

How do the elderly generally react to the fact that he or she is dependent on somebody — son or daughter? Mr. John says dependence can be economical, physical or emotional. Even those who were earning earlier would sometimes have to depend on children economically due to various reasons.

Depending on someone for physical needs due to ill health of old age is also depressing. In Kerala, the load of such care is now shared significantly by the home nurses. The younger generation seem to be comfortable in delegating this to the new service available. However, quite a number of elderly are yet to get tuned to this “surrogate care”.

The inevitable plight to depend on children makes the elderly frustrated, angry and dejected. A sense of connectedness or being attended to or a feeling that they are cared for is the crucial component of geriatric care. Just merely providing the medical needs alone will not solve their problems.

Dr. John says that in retirement the most uncomfortable gain one gets is the extra time. “If one does take retirement as loss of power and self esteem, this time becomes the danger zone for unwanted misinterpretations, despairs and frustrations. One needs to rediscover the old pass times like gardening, vegetable growing and so on. One can share a bit of household chores. For the smarter ones they can get into new jobs,” he says.

However, doing business may not be good as there is a risk of being cheated at this stage. For those who have a social service mind, there are many avenues for voluntary work like in palliative care, or suicide prevention, Dr. John says.

In Kerala, the younger ones migrate from home towns or villages to other places in the country or abroad for a living. Most of the elderly, thus, stay alone in big houses.

Their link with children is through phone calls or the Internet chat. Dr. John says that the senior citizens’ forums formed at various places are helpful. “They are good models of meeting together and sharing. At Medical Trust Hospital on every first Saturday, 80-100 senior citizens come together for a meeting. This has been going on for the last seven years. They have a coffee and listen to a talk by a doctor. They get their subsidised blood and health check-ups. They know each other and exchange pleasantries. The regularity is amazing,” he says.

Similar groups are functioning at Panampilly Nagar, Changampuzha Park and other places.

Some of the senior citizens’ forums arrange picnics and the elders participate with great enthusiasm.

There is a need for an exclusive model geriatric care home that cares for the bedridden and the paralysed who mostly need nursing care and physiotherapy.

Perhaps one needs to plan at least one ward in every hospital that will qualify for some concessions in taxations as an incentive to promote geriatric care, the doctor says.

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