We human beings are social animals; independency and dependency become part and parcel of life. As we all know, God has created the smartest creature called "human being", but sometimes societal and peer pressure become so immense that we stop addressing our health issues, which are bothersome. When clinical science was introduced to eradicate certain health issues, human beings purposefully acted ignorant or avoided support from healthcare experts because emotional well-being was considered a taboo.

So, at Senocare, we would like to address this sensitive yet severely impacted concern, which makes things worse. Emotional and mental well-being in older adults is a big deal—and it is often overlooked. Ageing brings wisdom and perspective, but it can also come with real emotional challenges that deserve care and attention. Today we talk about health issues from tip to toe, but sadly, in India we are still struggling to channelise the awareness about emotional well-being in seniors, but rather families are in denial or consider it an ageing habit.

It is our privilege to contribute to understanding mental health in elderly persons and elucidate significant pointers that would help us to understand with nitty gritty: -

1) What is health/mental health or well-being?

Let's understand what we exactly mean by "health". Well, it is a balance between physical, emotional, and mental well-being and not merely the absence of an illness, e.g., maintained blood sugar, blood pressure, or following a healthy lifestyle, etc. To elaborate more, mental health consists of psychological, emotional, and social well-being. It is nowhere written or scientifically proven that a learnt person/CEO or MD of any fast-growing organisation cannot suffer through mental health, but we live in our own fancy assumptions.

Why it is important to talk about mental health—Mental health is one of the vital roles of our total health to play and operate our day-to-day functions. Surprisingly, it is unbiased; it has no caste, creed, income, or ethnicity. Hence, it is very essential to educate ourselves, talk, and increase awareness. Things get very challenging when people have less knowledge and start comparing mental health with moronic behaviour and hallucinations, which leads to inadequate timely support, and the illness gets worse with age.

2) Common risks of mental health in elderly person

The peculiarity of risk factors of mental health are psychological, biological, genetic, and cultural and at the family level, due to which negative outcomes, behavioural changes, decreases in functionality, and uncertainty of decision-making could be expected. With senior citizens, along with their growing age, they become vulnerable as mental health adds up to their existing clinical health condition, especially when there is a case of bereavement or children are away from their home, so the idea of being valued or purposeful gets demeaned, and with this thought, elders slip into depression, anxiety, loneliness, and social isolation. It is very easy to assess physical health symptoms, but identifying mental health symptoms is not that simple, and sometimes we simply tag it "age-related issue" instead of addressing it and remain in denial.

3) Addressing / analyzing signs and symptoms of mental health

Awareness is key to every cure; similarly, analysing mental health symptoms is equally important. There are few common signs, which we might not necessarily see all of but differ from individual to individual. For e.g. Social isolation, regular mood swings, confused state, loss of appetite, or not being able to explain symptoms that the body is experiencing—however, these cannot be the top diagnoses to come to any conclusion, but rather, seek help from clinical professionals to get an indication about physical well-being and so on and so forth. If physical health is fine, then symptoms could be further assessed by a mental wellness expert. Not paying timely heed to the issue could lead to several complications: family dispute, abuse of substances, weak immunity, self-harm, feelings of being unwelcome, and certain personality changes (cognitive decline—dementia and Alzheimer's).

4) Circumvention of mental health

As medical science and technology have been evolving for ages, our health experts are very well equipped to cure major illnesses; however, life never comes with a warranty or a guarantee card. But as there is a saying, "Prevention is better than cure," similarly, there is no permanent cure for mental health, but it could be prevented, and small gestures and a line of treatment at the correct time could help to boost the morale and gain resilience to keep the symptoms under control. At a certain age it is not easy to change habits; hence, support from family and carers has predominantly shown excellent results. Small gestures, patience and most importantly reverse parenting are what an elder looks forward to; moreover, we must be mindful about our parents' healthy lifestyle, engage them socially, spend time and show care, which will do magic, and not present as a social stigma which compels elders to stop themselves from talking freely because their fear takes over.

5) Management of mental health

Mental health management is an ongoing and comprehensive process which includes medical care, social acceptance, unconditional family support, understanding self-importance and indulging in life skills to lead a productive and meaningful life. But most importantly, as primary carers, we also need to educate ourselves in a timely manner by referring to journals and health talks by many health experts and counsellors.

We shall conclude this with a famous saying: “It’s okay not to be okay.” (Accepting emotional struggles is part of healing).


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