According to the WHO, more than 40% of people over 50 are diagnosed with senile depression. Moreover, women suffer from it twice as often as men. Depression is in itself a very serious mental disorder, and multiplied by the characteristics of a decrepit organism and the nuances of an age-related psyche, it completely develops into a huge medical and social problem. Unfortunately, it is often unsolvable. And yet such people can, and most importantly, they must definitely try to help.
CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS OF OLD DEPRESSION
Undoubtedly, the main cause of depressive disorders in the elderly is the steadily deteriorating state of health and the associated fear of serious illness and death, the fear of becoming a burden for children, and the fear of losing oneself. When vision, hearing and memory fail, legs and arms refuse to serve, and the bedside table is full of drugs - there is something to fall into depression.
The second key reason is loneliness and the pain of loss. Many dear people have died, the children have left, only memories of work and former social status remain. There is more than enough free time, so sad thoughts about the end, loneliness, missed opportunities, uselessness constantly creep into my head ... This is how depression happens.
At the onset of the disease, the elderly complain of insomnia, loss of energy, and bad mood. Further, depression, as a rule, manifests itself as gloom, irritability, old man's grunts, and tearfulness. If at this stage such people are not helped, their condition can deteriorate catastrophically: severe anxiety, depressive delirium develop, short-term motor excitement is replaced by a long period of inhibition, and thoughts of suicide appear.
HOW CAN DOCTORS HELP?
Psychotherapy rarely helps people with senile depression, which is due to complex age-related changes in the psyche that are difficult to correct. The combination of psychotherapy with the use of modern antidepressants gives the best results, but often the use of such pharmaceuticals is limited due to their conflict with other drugs that older people usually take to treat chronic diseases.
In severe forms of senile depression (complete refusal to eat, suicidal behavior, etc.) and the ineffectiveness of conservative treatment, electroconvulsive therapy is most effective. But it also has many contraindications, so it cannot always be applied.
Based on the foregoing, it is extremely important to see a doctor in the early stages of the disease. Only in this case, complex therapy is quite effective.
HOW CAN YOUR LOVE HELP?
In fact, there are many more doctors who can help people with senile depression from relatives and friends. Their main tools are genuine interest, attention, care and a lot of patience. You also need to be very empathetic. A sick person cannot simply say "Smile!", "Don't be depressed!" or "Get busy!" Not only will such calls not work, but they will worsen depression. Help should be unobtrusive, thoughtful, delicate. People with senile depression cannot be treated with soul-saving conversations and instructions, you need to carefully grope for a new (or revive an old) goal or interest in life and make them come to their senses.
This will help:
Regular physical activity. Exercise, long walks in the fresh air, Nordic walking, feasible work in the garden or vegetable garden. All this will not only distract from bad thoughts, but also strengthen your health, which will automatically lift your mood. The main thing is that it was not boring to study - together with children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren or peers.
Constant communication. Talk to a close elderly person whenever possible. In person, by phone, Skype. Write letters and sms. More often bring your grandchildren or great-grandchildren, arrange family dinners at a big noisy table, take them out to a cafe, cinema or just to people. Be sure to entrust him with some simple tasks, each time emphasizing how he helps you and how grateful you are to him. When an elderly person feels needed and loved, depression will not come close to him.
Dancing.According to scientists, this is one of the best drugs for depression. Waltz and tango therapy is especially helpful. Dance together, enroll an elderly person in a dance club, find a partner. And it will bloom.
Favorite hobby.Anything that will distract, bring pleasure (and possibly additional income), make the elderly person happy and needed.
The "Easter Gift" festival will last until April 15 in the capital. This year charitable organizations take an active part in it. the site spoke to Alla Romanovskaya, a representative of the Old Age in Joy Foundation, and learned how ordinary Muscovites can help lonely elderly people.
The Old Age in Joy Foundation has existed since 2007. Initially, it was a volunteer community of people who decided to help lonely pensioners in nursing homes throughout Russia. In 2011, a charitable foundation grew out of the movement. Now under his patronage there are about 200 institutions in more than 20 regions of the country.
Every week, the fund's volunteers go to nursing homes and visit their wards, collect funds to buy medicines, equipment, organize repairs and celebrations. They do everything so that the elderly do not feel lonely. Alla Romanovskaya, a representative of the Old Age in Joy Foundation, spoke about the work of the foundation, plans for the festival and the coming year, as well as the fact that each of us has a desire to do good.
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Speaking and showing
— The Old Age in Joy Foundation is a participant of the Easter Gift festival, what have you planned?
- In general, we are participating in city events not for the first time. The "Easter Gift" for us is an opportunity to tell more about helping older people, to attract more people to our work. Our foundation will work at the festival sites for two days: on April 11 - on Profsoyuznaya Street, and on the 13th - on Revolution Square.
It will be possible to bring things to the stand for grandparents living in nursing homes (the list can be viewed on the website). These can be new T-shirts for grandfathers, new dressing gowns for grandmothers, soft sweets (marshmallows, candy, diabetic sweets), goods for creativity. Actually, creativity can be done right on the site: we will hold master classes on painting eggs, decoupage. And everything that our visitors do during the festival, we will then pass on to our elderly wards.
In general, such festivals are important for people to understand exactly how they can help. Each of us has a desire to share our warmth, but people do not know how to help. And such events, of course, provide an opportunity to convey to a person who has not encountered charity and did not participate in it, the idea that it is possible to help and it is not difficult.
— Do Muscovites support charity events?
- We hope that a lot of people will respond. This is actually the easiest way to help when you don't spend a lot of money, but still share your warmth. This is attention first. Elderly people often already suffer from the fact that they do not always have enough time for their relatives, and those who have no relatives are generally out of the question.
Therefore, attention to them, even such a simple one, is especially important. Not everyone can pack up and go to a nursing home, and a card with a kind word will reach an elderly person, and he will understand that it is important that someone thought about him and gave him a present. And of course, we hope that we can continue to attract people to help the fund.
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Natural desire to help
- How did the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a volunteer movement working with older people come about?
- Our director Elizaveta Oleskina at some point was on a folk expedition in one of the regions, wandered into a nursing home, and a completely natural desire to help arose. We began to unite around us people who are also not indifferent.
But in general, there are very few funds for helping elderly single people, this assistance is highly specialized. About 80 percent of people who generally want to help someone want to help children, and the remaining 20 percent are considering the possibility of helping the disabled and the elderly. That is, our direction is not very popular, and we are pioneers in it: we do not have very many colleagues, we do not have large ones at all, so we conduct most of our activities by trial and error, accumulating experience.
The foundation has a difficult task - to change public opinion. We understand that by building a system of assistance to the elderly, we care about our future. Every person has the right to a dignified old age, and I want the country to have a system based on human needs.
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- In addition to participating in the Easter Gift festival, you are actively working with the city, how is this cooperation built?
- Now we have launched our activities in Moscow and are very glad to cooperate. For example, we received a grant from the Public Relations Committee to create a volunteer center for helping the elderly. As part of this grant, we organize regular seminars where we tell you how to help the elderly. We regularly visit Moscow boarding schools, social welfare institutions, work with schoolchildren, students, spend "hours of kindness" telling students about how you can help people.
Plus we have recently developed and launched a mobile application. With its help, you can learn about the work of the foundation, about travel, about how you can visit the elderly and, of course, support our foundation by making a donation.
A global system with a personal touch
- Charitable organizations are constantly developing, and what plans does your foundation have for the near future?
- Now we are reaching a new level - we are creating a system of long-term care for an elderly person within the framework of a federal initiative. The Old Age in Joy Foundation is actively involved in the methodological and practical part of the project. Now we are combining the resources of society and the state to improve the quality of life of elderly people in need of assistance.
Thanks to this system, the needs of the elderly person will be taken into account in order to help him in the future. If we explain with examples, now a person can either end up in a nursing home, where he will receive round-the-clock support, or a social worker will come to him twice a week for an hour and a half. There is no middle ground. But not everyone needs support around the clock if one or two visits of a social worker a week are not enough. In this case, you can, for example, arrange the following: the nurse will come for an hour or three, but every day. And this will be much more profitable for the state, because it does not require comprehensive support for a person, as in a nursing home, and at the same time it will be easier for him to stay at home in a familiar environment.
Why you need to help the elderly.
There are many elderly people in our country. All sorts of sources and statistics speak about this, but everything is clear without numbers. The way most of them live, it seems that the state did not at all expect to provide them with a decent, or at least close to normal, life. The pension is small, but there are practically no benefits left. Those who have children and relatives are more fortunate: they are not alone, there are those who will take care of them. However, there are many of those for whom a dog or a cat is the most familiar, but they can hardly be called helpers ...
The tree is heavily rooted
Recently, we have somehow forgotten about the most important thing - mutual assistance, respect and reverence for elders, about such feelings as sincerity, disinterestedness, gratitude. In general, about the human, the eternal - about the soul. Most people strive to live in the present day, to make a lot of money, not looking back at anything, to think only about their own good. But how can a tree live without roots? Of course not.
Today, many charitable organizations are eager to help orphans, abandoned, seriously ill children, at the same time forgetting about the elderly people who need such help no less. Why is this happening? Psychologists say that this is the so-called fear of old age: in the minds of people, it is associated with something negative. People do not notice the problems of the elderly in order to consciously distance themselves from this "terrible" old age. Old people feel it ... And this feeling of exclusion is even worse than illness and lack of money. But do we really have the moral right not to notice anything and abstract ourselves? No friends. We must help the elderly. There is nobody but us.
Why help?
So, it is necessary to begin with in order to once and for all dispel doubts about the need for any help to an elderly person. Some people ask themselves: why is it necessary to help the elderly at all? First of all, it is surprising that such a question arises in principle.
If only because there is simply no one to help a huge number of old people in Russia: according to statistics from 2012, a quarter of elderly people are single. Very often old age is associated with illness, poverty, inability to take care of oneself. And one more obvious misfortune of lonely people is loneliness itself, lack of attention and ordinary human communication. Each of us can help with something, but just one smile of an elderly person is already so much! We have compiled a short guide for those who would like to help but do not know where to start.
How can you help
However, you can also provide the simplest, but much-needed help, which will consist in attention to a person. For example, start correspondence with people living in nursing homes. At first glance, it seems that this is very simple and not so important, but in reality everything is different. Yes, it is not difficult to send one letter, succumbing to the momentary impulse of altruism, much more difficult to constantly maintain correspondence with a stranger. Finding information about such houses is easy: it is freely available on the Internet.
What to communicate about?
Yes, absolutely everything. Just start talking about yourself: who you are, what you do and are fond of, what music you listen to, what books you read. Ask about the tastes and preferences of your interlocutor. Refer to his experience and wisdom, ask for advice on how to act in a particular life situation. And even if you do not listen very carefully to his recommendations, an elderly person will be extremely pleased to feel needed. Psychologists recommend attaching your photo to the first letter.
However, let us leave aside the letters. Look outside, into the yard of your house. Surely you will see a bored pensioner on the bench. Walk up to him, just say hello, talk about this and that, listen to him. Believe me, for him it will be a good memory of the past day.
What you can't talk about
Remember the main rule: the best is the enemy of the good, or, otherwise, do no harm. Of course, there are topics that are best left out. There are no special recommendations in this matter. You just need to listen to your heart and be guided by culture, respect and a sense of tact. For example, if a person recently lost a soul mate, you should not constantly tell him about your happy love. He will certainly be glad for you, but the annoyance and bitterness of loss will prevail.
If you take up the correspondence, keep in mind that you will not always be answered: many older people find it difficult to write.
Active help
If reasoning, communication and letter writing are not to your liking, or you simply don’t have time for it, there are other options for helping older people. For example, you can contact specialized funds, become a volunteer. We always need those who are ready to talk with old people, sing for them with a guitar, take them out for a walk (many cannot walk and therefore do not go outside for years) or just drive a car. The most important thing is to want to help, and you will certainly find something to do.
Again, back to what and who surrounds us. Doing a good deed for an elderly person is much easier than it seems. No matter how trite it may sound, but hardly anyone will refuse help in buying food and delivering them to the apartment. Clean up the apartment? Will be very grateful! Helping to get to the monuments and those places to which they themselves are not able to reach is also a good thing. In general, if you want to - you can always find the area of \u200b\u200bapplication of your sincerity.
I want to help with money
Let's say you don't have time for business, or even for conversations, but you want to help and you have such an opportunity. What to do and where, in fact, to donate funds?
First of all, you can transfer money to the same specialized organizations and funds, the details of which can be easily found on the Internet. They have different forms for transferring funds, so it will be a matter of five minutes. Whatever fund you donate money to, remember: it is better to donate modest amounts (literally 100 rubles each), but regularly. Then benefactors will be able to plan their budget, and help will become permanent.
Meanwhile, many of us do not leave the doubt that the money sent will not reach the addressees. It’s a painful time today, not supported by moral principles. What can be done? Help with groceries, things, goods necessary for elderly people.
As for doubts about hosting organizations, before sending any amounts, read how to figure out whether to trust a particular company. The general and most important rule is this: everything should be transparent.
Now about the necessary things: in many institutions there are not enough diapers, medicines, diapers, hygiene products and other things. And the bed linen is often so washed out that it is unpleasant to lie on it. Almost all charity sites also have complete lists of the items you need.
Instead of an afterword
Unfortunately, it so happened that in our country the most unprotected group of citizens today are the elderly - especially the lonely, infirm, seriously ill. Respect for them is perhaps one of the most important principles of humanity and morality. Therefore, it is very important not to turn away from their problems, not to close our eyes, but to help - completely and unselfishly. You will be rewarded, do not hesitate. What is a trifle for us becomes a great value for the elderly. And after all, very little is required - to be a little more attentive, kinder, more noble. It's simple. But it's very important.
Tasha Berezhnaya.
http://www.eparhia-saratov.ru
The law of death is common to all mankind. Death is inevitable. But if a person thinks that his life ends on a grave, he drives himself into a dead end. Christians know that there is no death and eternal life awaits us. But how difficult it can be to come to terms with the inevitable, especially if a loved one is dying! What can be done to ease his suffering and help him finish his life with dignity?
We often think that the dying person needs only care and comfort; this is not true. It happens that when an elderly person falls ill - a father, mother, husband or wife, relatives, realizing that the disease is incurable, quickly send him or her to a hospital or other institution.<…> Old people, men and women, approach the most important hour of their lives without love, not reassured and not reconciled, but humiliated, unhappy and sometimes embittered.
Relatives believe that he will be better there, they know what to do there. From time to time, a wife or husband will visit a sick person and think that they have done everything that is necessary and possible. But it is difficult for them to see a sick person, and the further the disease goes, the more difficult it is. Visits are made shorter and less frequent. Children are also busy with their own; they think, of course, of a sick father or mother, but in general, all this is perceived mainly as a complication of their own life.
Soon, you will still have to decide where to die: in the hospital or at home. It is difficult to die in any conditions, but dying at home when those you love and who love you are around you is easier. Think each and every one about yourself; when it's your turn - where?
How to help the elderly
In this article, you will learn:
Why is it important to help the elderly?
How volunteers help the elderly
How to help an elderly person at home and in a boarding school
How you can help older people through social funds
Usually, everyone thinks about how to help the elderly on the eve of the big All-Russian holidays - Victory Day or New Year. Volunteers, welfare workers, distant and sometimes even close relatives "raid" an elderly person, give gifts and run away again on urgent matters.
And few people think about what is much more expensive than material gifts, attention and sympathy for the elderly. And even for those who are really experiencing financial difficulties. This is especially true for people who are limited by the cramped world of a nursing home or cannot independently leave the apartment and at least go down to the entrance to communicate with their peers. Let's talk about how to help the elderly?
How to help the elderly at home
Very often you can help older people with household chores - cleaning, washing, buying food and medicine, just talking and caring. But at the same time, it is often especially difficult to help the elderly at home. There are many reasons. For example, first you need to find a person who would really need such help. These people do not go out (otherwise they can already be considered independent and do not need support), it is also impossible to get addresses and phone numbers through social services - these structures do not disclose the personal data of their wards.
But even if you find someone who needs your assistance, that's half the battle. As soon as you start helping an elderly person, relatives will definitely intervene. And they can be understood - for no reason at all, a stranger suddenly began to walk into the apartment of an elderly relative! And if it's a scammer? Considering that there are quite a few swindlers today, relatives have the right to doubt, agree. Let's say you've managed to convince your family that you really just want to help an elderly person. And you found a lonely old man.
But even this does not guarantee getting rid of the problems. For example, after a volunteer came to an apartment, an elderly person may lose something (or it will seem to him that something is missing). At the same time, the volunteer is absolutely defenseless, he cannot prove his innocence.
When helping an elderly person at home, you need to be prepared for another emergency situation - a person may suddenly become ill, and the volunteer should be ready to take immediate action.
Many people may get the impression that it is generally impossible to help an elderly person at home. This is not so, you just need to establish contact with social protection services, relatives, formalize your relationship with the ward with a special agreement, and even easier - contact a large volunteer organization, which has already worked out a mechanism for helping the elderly.
Helping Seniors in Government Nursing Homes
Today in Russia there are more than 2,000 thousand nursing homes, in which more than ten thousand old people live permanently. How does a person end up in a nursing home? Everyone has different circumstances. Someone in his declining years was left completely alone, without relatives, and cannot take care of himself. Others have living relatives, but they do not want to support and care for the old man. In the third, the children have left for the country and have forgotten about the elderly parent. The purpose of our article is not to condemn people who abandoned their old people, but to find out how to help the elderly, including in nursing homes. Therefore, let's not talk about the reasons, let's talk about the consequences.
In a nursing home, an elderly person is cut off from the outside world. Someone does not want to go beyond the limits of their little world, and someone cannot do this. In this case, the whole life of older people is limited to joint breakfasts, lunches, dinners, simple entertainments like watching TV and listening to the radio. In general, an elderly person who finds himself in a nursing home seems to cease to exist for the outside world. It is especially difficult in such a situation for bedridden patients - they do not even have the opportunity to go out into the courtyard and breathe fresh air.
In nursing homes, many find it difficult even to engage in hobbies - knitting, embroidery, sawing, etc. And not because it is prohibited. It's just that three-quarters of the pension goes to the nursing home itself to support the patient, and the remaining quarter - for little tasty pleasures or for the staff in general - for going to the store, for example, or extra cleaning in the ward. So the "guests" are in dire need of our help. How to help the elderly in nursing homes?
- Attention, care and respect, creative employment.
Finding themselves in unfamiliar conditions for themselves, elderly people often react to a change in the familiar environment with apathy, complete indifference to themselves and everything that surrounds them. This apathy can - and often does - lead to so-called “loss of identity”. As a result, nursing home patients lose their own opinions, are ready to do “whatever they say,” begin to put up with the rudeness of the staff, poor material support, bad food, etc.
The same thing happens with the staff. Taking care of dozens of patients every day as part of their professional duties, they cease to respect them and even "distinguish" between them. All merge into a solid mass, which is even physically unrealistic to serve, not to pay attention to the needs, needs and wishes of each patient, to the lack of live human communication and attention.
Why is it important to help older people in nursing homes? Together with the “loss of personality”, a person completely loses motivation for life. Older people withdraw into themselves, withdrawn, cease to feel like individuals who deserve respect. Helping older people in this case is to return them the joy of communication, to make them feel needed and useful again.
How exactly can older people be helped in nursing homes? It's actually quite simple. You need to give them to show their skills, talents, make them think, if possible - to do something. Various simple creative tasks are well suited for this. For example, the “Old Age in Joy” Foundation invites culture organizers and art therapists to the elderly. At first, the elderly, who have fallen into apathy, internally resist pursuing creativity, but then the process is extremely fascinating to them. They are impatiently awaiting the continuation of their studies, beginning to present their works to the public.
Is there a way to help older people living outside a nursing home in the same way? Of course you can. For those living on their own, charities also provide creative and intellectual pursuits.
- Help with your hands.
Helping elderly people in nursing homes is possible not only with attention, but also corny - with your hands. Nursing homes are often a rather sad sight. Not only does the whole furnishings speak about the state of the house, but also cosmetic repairs have been made far from every nursing home. Therefore, the elderly also need help with the household - repairs, cutting the grass in the yard, repairs in the wards, etc.
How to personally help older people
1. You can help the elderly on a regular basis, not just occasionally. If you're ready, there are some easy ways to help older people.
You can visit the elderly on your own or by joining a volunteer trip. Volunteers usually organize concerts for their wards, think about whether you should take part too? Sing something, read poetry, play a scene, etc. A concert plus sweet gifts - and now the grandparents are smiling, their spirits have lifted.
It will cost you nothing at all to be a "penpal grandson." Is that the cost of an envelope. Lonely elderly people are happy with any news from the world, they will look forward to your letters and postcards. At the same time, it does not matter at all where you live, because ordinary letters sent by mail connect the most different corners of the globe.
2. You can help older people living on their own and in nursing homes with money. Let's talk about financial assistance.
You can buy basic necessities and take them to nursing homes, or give the package to volunteers. What should you buy?
nursing homes usually need diapers for adults, personal care items, medical equipment;
those who live independently also have their own needs. You need to find out before buying.
You can visit old people in a remote village, buy them a supply of food, chop wood for the winter.
Remember that low-income retirees don't just live in your city. There are especially many of them in the villages where they live out their days, unable to leave. You can collect a food parcel and send it to those in need.
To make your initiative useful and reach the right addressee, look for like-minded people on the Internet. For example, the Tugeza community can offer many options for charitable assistance to the elderly to choose from. In addition to financial support, you can help older people with repairs, cleaning, laundry, etc.
You can regularly follow the ongoing charity events. For example, "Give Firewood" - an action, the purpose of which was to raise funds for old people living in houses with stove heating.
A good way to help the elderly is a corporate clean-up at a nursing home. Its meaning is to make cosmetic repairs and equip the territory of the nursing home as soon as possible with the help of several dozen people - to break flower beds, clean paths, put up benches for walking, etc.
3. Patients of a nursing home who can walk, as well as single elderly people living on their own, can be taken to places that are important to them. Usually this is a cemetery - to visit the graves of relatives and friends, a clinic, a church.
4. You can help older people get some services through e-programs, help them understand technology.
5. If you don't have time for personal help, you can help older people by making a donation to their benefit. The money will go to pay for care assistants, nannies.
I want to help the elderly. Where to begin?
To get started, you can contact a charitable organization. There are charitable foundations that specialize specifically in helping the elderly - "Old Age in Joy", "Sofia", "Good Deed", "Union of Generations". Many organizations are involved in charity in several areas, including helping the elderly. ("Tradition", Orthodox Help Service "Mercy",