Mental Health Problem for elderly

1. Ravindra Lal Mul
Student(013)
M.Sc. In Public Health and Disaster Engineering
School of Enginering
Pokhara University
July 2019 Lekhnath, Kaski

2. “With a life time of hard work, senior citizens of
today deserve a dignified and care for old age, not
as a charity from the younger generation but as
the rights of their own.”
“As elders are the living history of a society, it is
very important to utilize their knowledge, skills
and experience for socio-economic development.”

3.  Globally, the population is ageing rapidly.
Between 2015 and 2050, the proportion of
the world’s population over 60 years will
nearly double, from 12% to 22%.
 By 2020, the number of people aged 60
years and older will outnumber children
younger than 5 years.
 In 2050, 80% of older people will be living
in low- and middle-income countries.

4.  The pace of population ageing is much
faster than in the past.
 All countries face major challenges to
ensure that their health and social systems
are ready to make the most of this
demographic shift.
 Approximately 15% of adults aged 60 and
over suffer from a mental disorder.

5. “At the biological level, ageing results from the impact of
the accumulation of a wide variety of molecular and cellular
damage over time. This leads to a gradual decrease in
physical and mental capacity, a growing risk of disease, and
ultimately, death.”
But these changes are neither linear nor consistent, and
they are only loosely associated with a person’s age in
years.
While some 70 year-olds enjoy extremely good health and
functioning, other 70 year-olds are frail and require
significant help from others.

6. Physical
 Hearing loss
 Cataracts (clouding of the lens in the eye)
 Back and neck pain
 Blood pressure (Hypertension)
 Osteoarthritis (bones wears down over time)
 Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
 Diabetes

7. Mental
 Depression
 Dementia (decline in mental ability severe enough
to interfere with daily life. Memory loss is an
example. Alzheimer's is the most common type
of dementia
Social
 Isolation
 Left behind
 Abuse

8.  Although some of the variations in older people’s
health are genetic, much is due to people’s
physical and social environments – including
their homes, neighborhoods, and communities, as
well as their personal characteristics – such as their
sex, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status.
 Environments - eating a balanced diet, engaging in
regular physical activity, and refraining from
tobacco use all contribute to reducing the risk of
non-communicable diseases and improving
physical and mental capacity.

9.  Environments - eating a balanced diet, engaging in
regular physical activity, and refraining from
tobacco use all contribute to reducing the risk of
non-communicable diseases and improving
physical and mental capacity.
 Behaviours -Strength training to maintain muscle
mass and good nutrition can both help to preserve
cognitive function, delay care dependency, and
reverse frailty.
 Supportive environments -The availability of safe
and accessible public buildings and transport, and
environments that are easy to walk around.

10. Diversity in older age
Health inequities
Outdated and ageist stereotypes
A rapidly changing world

11.  Over 20% of adults aged 60 and over suffer from a mental or
neurological disorder (excluding headache disorders) and
 6.6% of all disability (disability adjusted life years-DALYs)
among people over 60 years is attributed to mental and
neurological disorders.
 These disorders in older people account for 17.4% of Years Lived
with Disability (YLDs).
 The most common mental and neurological disorders in this age
group are dementia and depression, which affect
approximately 5% and 7% of the world’s older population,
respectively.
 Anxiety disorders affect 3.8% of the older population,
substance use problems affect almost 1% and around a quarter
of deaths from self-harm are among people aged 60 or above.
 Substance abuse problems among older people are often
overlooked or misdiagnosed.

12.  Study conducted by Institute of medicine stated the prevalence of depression
according to Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) is 53.2% which includes 34.2% of mild
and 19% of severe depression.
 An elderly patient suffering from depression often has a combination of
psychological, physical and social needs.
 In relation to intestinal parasites the prevalence found to be 41.7%, out of which
30.6% had multiple parasitism. Males (43.8%) had slightly infection rate than females
(40.4%).
 Nutritionally inadequate diets -chronic and acute diseases and hasten the
development of degenerative diseases associated with aging.
 31% of elderly people were malnourished, and a further 51% were at risk of
malnutrition.
 elderly males (59%) had of physical pain (joints, knee, back, stomach, etc.)
 respiratory problem (39%), eye problem (30%), gastric (29%), blood pressure and
teeth problem (22% each), and dementia/Alzheimer (16%).

13. Thank You