Why we need to be talking about the mental health of the elderly
Earlier this month, the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences, Bengaluru, started a collaborative venture with HelpAge India to provide psychiatric support to the elderly. As Dr Minakshi Manchanda, the associate director of psychiatry at Asian Hospital, points out: with the decline of the joint family system, senior citizens often end up leading isolated lives, putting them at risk for poor mental health. Unfortunately, as Dr Neerja Birla, the founder and chairperson of Mpower, an initiative of the Aditya Birla Education Trust, points out, older people are often resistant to seeking treatment for mental health. Antara Senior Care, a retirement home for senior citizens, said that 57 per cent of their residents reported having experienced some mental health issues during the pandemic. Dr Birla too agrees that MPower is starting to see that the geriatric demographic, too, is becoming more open to accepting the reality of mental health concerns and seeking help for it since the pandemic.
India didn’t prioritize mental health before Covid-19. Now it’s paying the price
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