What are common mental health challenges for older people and how to get help.
Welcome back, I want to talk about psychiatric issues. And I'm not going to go into any one specifically. But just some general principles to understand when we're dealing with older people, and psychiatric disorders. Even though we've worked really hard to try and de stigmatize mental health, I find that people are still embarrassed to talk about it. It's easy for them to say, Oh, yeah, I got a pacemaker, or I have something from my heart, or I have diabetes. Most people just realize, hey, their bodies fall apart. And nobody worries talking about it. But when our mind isn't functioning the way that we think it, should we have a tendency to be embarrassed about that, like, Oh, I struggle with anxiety. Well, what's wrong with you? Why can't you just get rid of it? Oh, I struggle with depression, I don't understand why you can't just, you know, go exercise and get out of the funk. And it continues to be a difficult problem. Especially our older generation, they didn't grow up talking about mental health, or social anxiety, or all these different types of disorders. Sometimes individuals have mental health disorders. And as they get older, it just is worsened because of other stress that comes into their life. So they already deal with anxiety, the anxiety may get worse, because now they're having trouble walking or taking a shower or cooking a meal. If they were lonely and depressed before Well, now they're more isolated, because they can't get out of the house. But some people will develop more mental health problems that they never dealt with when they were younger. My mother was one of those people, she just was like, I don't understand any of this. But I remember the last four or five months of her life, she goes, I don't know what's wrong with me, I just feel like there's this dark cloud that's come over me. While I understood because I have struggled with depression. So I understand that dark cloud coming over you. But she just, you know, didn't know what it was. And she had a hard time understanding when the doctor said, well, you're struggling with depression. About 15% of older people will take an antidepressant. A lot of times, that's because they're dealing with very life changing things that are happening in their life. For instance, there may be dealing with the loss of a child, the loss of a spouse, they may be dealing with the loss of their help, or the loss of friends, they may be dealing with the loss of income, all these things can just add up and it becomes very overwhelming for an individual. And therefore they begin to deal with more depression or anxiety. I've also met older people who have bipolar disorder. Well, what usually happens is, it gets worse as you get older. Bipolar is people who are happy, excited, everything's going well, one day, you know, you just can barely slow them down. And then the next day, they're so depressed, they can hardly get out of bed. That's why it's bipolar, they go from one end to the other. We are also seeing a rise in suicide among elderly people, especially among men. The reason that I talk about this is people just still twinned. When we talk about psychiatric disorders. The other issue that begins to happen is people who develop dementia can also begin to have behavior problems. If it's just things that we can manage at home, that's one thing, but a lot of times they can become aggressive. And we can't just tap that down. Sometimes they get frustrated, and therefore they will act out and be aggressive. Now, when we are dealing with children who are two years old, we can just pick them up and stick them in a crib. But when we're dealing with adult we cannot do that. A lot of times I have people tell me, oh, I don't want to just put them on medication. And I want to say number one, doctors aren't just putting them on medication for the sake of putting them on medication, doctors or putting them on medications to relieve a psychological distress. I once took care of a client that we had to come in at night because she never slept night or day, and the family was exhausted. So they wanted us to be with her at night. Well imagine what she was feeling. Going months and months without hardly any sleep, she was so terribly agitated. She was on hospice, I do not understand why somebody had not put her on some kind of medication that would have helped her get some sleep at night.
Other reason that I bring this up is I tell people, if an individual begins to develop dementia, and they begin to have extreme behavior problems, especially aggression, that can be where they can hurt someone else, or hurt themselves, then that is the time to really make sure we're getting psychiatric help for this person. I tell people, if somebody is flying off the handle trying to hurt you, then that's the time to take them to the emergency room and have the emergency room evaluate them. Many times what's happened is the emergency room will evaluate them. And they will tell the family they need to be admitted to a psychiatric unit. And the family just know I'm going to take them home and take care of them myself. There's this fear or something about psychiatric units that scares people, I don't know that they feel like they're letting their loved ones down. I don't know if they feel like this is not going to be a safe place for their loved one to go. Yes, a psychiatric unit is many times locked. That's because these people could get up and wander off. Many of these psychiatric units have a very detailed schedule for each person. So somebody who is being aggressive may have one schedule, something to keep them busy, some exercise, some other evaluations. And they need to be able to do that without the family there. Because it could be that when the family comes in the client either withdraws or is more aggressive. And that's not going to help them be able to treat the client. When they go to a psychiatric unit, especially if they have dementia. Most of that is to begin to get them on the right medications. What I mean by the right medications is medications, that brings down that aggression, yet also allows them to be awake alert during the day, so that they can participate in their life. When a person acts out aggressively, usually they are fearful. If you have an opportunity, the Alzheimer's Association will put on a type of demonstration where each person is blindfolded and given a lot of noise. And it sort of simulates what an Alzheimer's person is feeling. They feel completely disoriented. Imagine how scary it must be to be in your own home and yet not know that it's your own home to see people talking to you. But you don't know who these people are. There's no way for those of us on the other side, taking care of our loved ones, to be able to understand what they're going through. We think because they're talking to us that they live in the same reality that we do, they do not. So just understand if a doctor or an emergency room says, Hey, we really think what's best for your loved one is to go to a psychiatric unit. Ask questions if you're not sure about it, but don't just say no, I'm going to take them home and deal with it myself. The reason is, they probably need that evaluation, they need those interventions. Most older people with dementia who go to a psychiatric unit, it's usually one to two weeks. Again, like I said, their whole thing is to try and make sure that they get their medication worked out. The other reason is somebody is aggressive to take them to the emergency room is to get them checked out medically. There can be medical reasons that a person is aggressive. If they have dementia, they may not be able to tell you. It can be everything from low vitamin B to low iron, maybe they have some type of infection. So the emergency room is going to check all that out and say, Okay, this is a medical issue that's going on. So maybe we can just fix that and then we're done. Or they'll say okay, we've checked everything out medically. They seem to be a danger to themselves or to others, we need to admit them to a psychiatric ward.
I also recommend if people are able to get in with some type of neuro psychiatrists, neurologists or a psychiatrist if they have some with dementia expecially, before they begin to have problems, just to sort of already have that relationship established. The other thing that I recommend with people who have some dementia or loss of memory is to begin to get help. The thing I get is, well, I can take care of them, or they just always want to be just around me, that's going to be a common thing. Of course, they just want to be around their wife, because their spouse is familiar. Therefore, if you bring in help early, they began to get used to having different people staying in the house with them. And the more that you get them used to other people, and they socialize, it's still expand their world. But when you just leave them just with one family member, it doesn't expand their world. So this benefits both the family caregiver. And this benefits. The person who has dementia, because they get to have different experiences. psychiatric issues of older people can sometimes be very challenging because you're dealing with many issues like dementia, maybe physical health, but don't be afraid to talk to the professionals. And keep pressing until you have a plan to address the issues. It may not solve everything, but it's a plan and you keep working on the plan to do that. Thank you for going on this caregiving journey with
if you have found this information helpful, feel free to share it with someone else. If you wish to contact me you can at info@kathysconsulting.com. I welcome any comments. Remember, this podcast is meant for informational purposes only, and not to replace the