Mr. Gautam, a retired scientist in his early 70s, lost his wife to brain stroke about a year ago. His two children are ‘well settled’ elsewhere. Till Mrs. Gautam was alive, the couple preferred to be in charge of their own life and hardly bothered the children who were living in different places abroad. But, with the passing of his wife, Mr. Gautam appeared to be withdrawn. He had considerably reduced interaction with others, his food intake reduced, he becomes emotional occasionally making him to shed tears and all these started showing on his physique in which he started losing weight. His sleep became erratic too. The other problems he had were reduced memory, lack of focus on what he was doing, forgetting to take his medicines for diabetes and hypertension, inattentiveness during conversations, inability to manage his finances etc. He had joint pains for which he took pain killers. Even as a person who had been very active on social activities till a year ago, he prefers to be in bed most of the time now. He seems to have become suspicious of others including the maid who is his caretaker as of now. His children who are worried about the situation feel that their father has become excessively emotional about the loss of their mother and will become alright if he stops doing that. They are not in a position to be with him physically for caregiving because of their career-related preoccupation in different countries and also because of their commitments towards their own families.
Almost all of what Mr. Gautam is suffering are symptoms of a mental health condition called Geriatric Depression which is also known as Late Life Depression. It starts affecting some of the older people from about the age of 65 years or so. Just as Mr. Gautam’s children think that his condition will go away if he stops thinking too much about their mother, most people with the responsibility of caring for their elderly family members come out with such simplistic reasoning which ultimately results in the avoidance of proper diagnosis and treatment. For people like Mr. Gautam, to begin with, the most important thing is to have proper primary mental healthcare from professionally trained psychiatric paramedics, psychologists or psychiatric doctors. This alone can lead to appropriate diagnosis and available treatment. Treatments for this mental health condition include medication by a psychiatrist and psychotherapy by a psychologist. Care also needs to be taken on the patient’s lifestyle, engagement in appropriate physical activities and ensuring family support. It is heartening to note that the treatment in this condition is quite effective. Yet, most patients do not reach even the primary care stage in countries like India which have unhelpful social attitudes towards professional mental health diagnosis and treatment.
We are living through an era, especially in India, in which the elders are repeatedly becoming vulnerable due to the absence of care from sources like the traditional joint family system that ensured someone’s availability in the family for caregiving. With this, the situation becomes worse when the elder concerned has a mental health issue. In a social environment in which mental health matters are considered taboo, improvement in the mental health awareness of the caregivers and the society at large becomes the most important factor that can expand the level of wellness of the elderly patients. In the cases of many elders who are separated from their children and close relatives, the irony is that even if the family members have the willingness and the wherewithal to ensure the improvement of the person’s mental health, they lack even in the basic understanding of the conditions and the measures needed to address them. Caregivers of the elderly people who are suffering from mental health situations need to gather as much awareness on the matter as possible, understand the right sources of diagnosis and treatment, familiarise with the medication, appreciate the roles of psychiatrists and psychologists in the treatment and ensure that own mental health does not get affected adversely by the condition of the person being cared for. They also need to overcome the stigma attached to psychiatric treatment. Towards all these, if nothing else, internet searches can be of great help, provided those searching can differentiate between information and misinformation.