Score another point for the pandemic. Once again, COVID-19 has brought a topic so critical to the light that we have to muster some gratitude. Of late, that issue is seniors’ mental health.
Increasingly, it seems, senior advocacy organizations are becoming aware of the need to understand seniors’ emotional difficulties and help them cope. One telling example: AARP Innovation Labs and Venture Miami this week announced six finalists for a competition that sought out digital innovations to combat loneliness and social isolation. Among the finalists: Interactive music programs, narrated bedtime stories and a phone for seniors with cognitive decline.
Also this week, American Senior Communities touted its mental health guide released last summer. Geared for families and caregivers, the guide is entitled Promoting Emotional Resilience and Social Well-being for Senior Adults. It talks about the physical health implications of emotional distress. For example, broken heart syndrome in some cases can cause “irreparable, physical damage to the heart,” the guide states.
How to foster what the guide calls emotional resilience, or the ability to adapt to crises, according to the guide?
- Practice mindfulness exercises, such as meditation, journaling and yoga
- Encourage resilient behaviors, such as open-mindedness and healthy coping skills
To encourage social and mental well-being, caregivers can encourage the following, the guide says:
- Reading
- Building personal relationships
- Seeking out social events
As we are learning with other cohorts, mental health among seniors goes hand in hand with physical health and can be as critical to address. If that is a lasting legacy of the pandemic, then we say these last two trying years were not wasted.
Liza Berger is editor of McKnight’s Home Care. Email her at [email protected]. Follow her @LizaBerger19.
