The Problem Of Depression In The Elderly

Depression is one of the most recurrently investigated psychological disorders within the area of medical R&D (Montorio & Izal, 1996). A number of exhaustive researches have been carried out to study its symptoms and impacts on different patients belonging to different personal and professional attributes and most of these researchers depicted that depression in the elderly people is very frequent and in spite of number of researches in this context, it is often undiagnosed or untreated. To add to this jeopardy, it has also been estimated that only 10% out of the total depressed elderly individuals receive proper diagnosis and treatment (Holroyd et al, 2000). And for that reason, an authentic

Alzheimer and depression effects an individuals’ occupations, independence and self worth, this will be the aim and focus of the following discussion. This discussion will explore the functions and disability of this scenario which includes, the primary body systems involved in Alzheimer 's and depression including the structure’s and function’s. Then, how Lee’s (2003) occupations across the three areas of productivity, self care and leisure are affected. Furthermore, it will also explore the context of this scenario, which includes the environmental and personal factors.

Over the last thirty years the number individuals held in the United States Prison system has been growing rapidly. Numerous studies have found that the prison population that is growing most rapidly is the elderly population. For the purposes of this paper, the term aging and elderly population will refer to those who are incarcerated and are over the age of 61. As the number of elderly inmates continues to increase the number of stressors put on both the correctional system and the individual. In general, the correctional system faces a significant amount of financial stress in attempting to care for aging inmates, where as the inmates themselves face more emotional and physical stressors of aging, chronic illnesses, and even dying in prison. This paper aims to examine the stressors faced by the system and the individuals, as well as alternative options to continuing the incarceration of aging and elderly individuals.

The graying of the nation’s inmates is also an issue which continues to swell the cost of health care within the prison. According to the Pew Center, “…between 1992 and 2001, the number of state and federal inmates aged 50 or older rose from 41,586 to 113,358.” Older inmates are gradually making up a larger proportion of the overall count. While one may say that aging decreases criminal activity, such as those that result from communicable diseases mentioned from the previous paragraph, there are many more factors that should be considered. One problem is that older inmates are often preyed upon by younger, stronger inmates; therefore, older inmates may require special housing. Hearing and visual

Between 1900 and 2000, the life expectancy in this country has risen from 47 to 78 years of age (Rikard & Rosenberg, 2013, p. 404). Although the older population has grown from 4% to 13% in the United States during the same period, the elder prison population has grown substantially. For example, between 1994 and 1998, Texas saw an 86% increase in the elderly prison populations while California expects to see a 200% increase by 2020 (Rikard & Rosenberg, 2013, p. 404). When determining the need to incarcerate an elderly individual, several costly considerations must be made. Elderly inmates require more medical care compared to the younger prisoners and special accommodations must be consider for older inmates (Rikard & Rosenberg, 2013, p.

As the number of the older adults is increasing so are those living with depression; therefore, it is important that perceptions around older adult depression be studied. According to the study done by the US Department of Commerce, it is estimated that the older adult population will more than likely double by 2050 and of 80 million and many as 1 in 5 Americans would be considered as an older adult (US Department of Commerce, 1995). There are many losses that accompany the aging process. These include the loss of loved ones and their independence. They begin to feel as though they will depend on their families for the rest of their lives. These factors scare them and causes many of the individuals to suffer from depression. One of the most predominant health problems in the United States is mental health. In the last 20th century, mental illness treatment has been through diverse changes in the United States. These changes have made it necessary for the policy and law makers to enact a law to protect the identity and integrity for people with mental health illness. Most individuals diagnosed with mental health illness are most often being ostracized and stigmatized. Because of social stigma attached to the individual with mental illness, their privacy is being violated and it has created so many issues in mental health.

In my practice as a social worker in a long term care setting, I have become aware these are the resident who lack to ability to care for themselves due to physical limitations as opposed to their mental limitations. I have also noticed this is the population which has the most difficulty adjusting to living in a nursing home. This seems to be the population which most often displays symptoms of depression and sadness regarding their situation of living in a nursing home, and often times will state they want to discharge home even though they and their families are unable to provide needed care.

Because the prison system has been an environment where for many years most of the inmates are in the range between 20 to 40 years old the system is constructed to deal with inmates that are around these ages. But due to the recent large increase among the elderly inmates, society has taken notice of some of the issues that the elderly have to deal with when they are incarcerated. According to the report by Tia Gubler (2006) the amount of elderly inmates has increased 750 percent in the last 20 years. This drastic change makes it harder for the prisons to adjust their regulations and procedures therefore leaving the elderly with no choice but to adapt to these type of restraints. She also highlights some of the most common issues that the elderlies

The four special populations that make up the prison inmates are the elderly prisoners, prisoners with HIV/AIDS, the mentally ill and long-term prisoners. Inmates that are over the age 55 populations are steadily increasing in the prison system. Correctional officials define elderly as anyone over the age of 50. There are an overwhelming number of sick calls in for inmates over 50 than the younger ones. Several states have established geriatric prisons designed to house older inmates classified based on his or her need: wheelchair user, nursing home care and etc.

The issue being discussed in this paper will be “the issue of the ‘graying’ of the American prison and parole population and the unique problems that elderly prisoners face while incarcerated and subsequent to release” (Stojkovic, 2007, pg. 98). Incarceration of elderly criminals is a highly debated topic in criminal justice. The definition of elderly criminal in this case will be a person 60 years or older that commits a criminal offense. This is not a new topic; however, there is not a lot of research conducted on elderly offenders. There are many arguments as to whether these elderly criminals should be treated the same as younger criminals and whether it is cost effective to put the elderly in prison. This paper will discuss the pros

Defining who can be considered “old” in the prison setting can be extremely challenging due to the biological, physiological and social characteristics of older offenders (Lemieux, Dyeson, Castiglione, 2002). As older offenders demonstrate different characteristics of aging then the general population, it becomes difficult to categorize them. When compared to societal views, the criteria in which classifies old or elderly is distinct in a prison setting. Although, many provinces may use varying criteria to classify subgroups in the prison population, the age range consisting of individuals between 50 to 55 years of age is most recognized in the literature (Aday, 1994; Hurley, 2014; Stojkovic, 2008). However, Correctional Service Canada categorizes elderly or older offenders as those who are 50 years of age or older (Correctional Service Canada, 2013). This range is based off the assumption that a prisoner can age 10 to 15 years more physiologically than their chronological age (Handtke &Wangmo, 2014). In fact, individuals incarcerated age faster than the general population due to their unhealthy lifestyles, the prison environment and the limited medical services (Handtke &Wagmo, 2014). Similar to societal age sub-group, the older individuals in prison are not considered a homogeneous group (Filinson, 2006). Moreover, the prison’s ageing population has been divided into 3 to 4 subgroups of offenders (Aday, 1994; Hurley, 2014; Uzoaba, 1988). Aday (1994) divides older offenders into three categories; the first includes individual serving life sentences also known as long-term offenders (Hurley, 2014). The second group consists of offenders with a long-history of crime or “career criminals” (Goetting, 1983, 18). The last and third category consists of individuals who have committed crimes later on in life. Each category embodies

Depression is the most common mental disorder, not only for adults, but for children and teenagers as well. The DSM-IV classifies depression as a mood disorder. It states that an individual has suffered a “major depressive episode” if certain symptoms persist for at least two weeks, including a loss of enjoyment in previously pleasurable activities, a sad or irritable mood, a significant change in weight or appetite, problems sleeping or concentrating, and feelings of worthlessness. These symptoms of depression fall into four categories: mood, cognitive, behavioral, and physical. Depression affects how individuals feel, think, behave, and how their bodies work. People with depression may experience symptoms in any or all of the

In the article “Depression Among Institutionalised and Non-institutionalised Elderly Widows and Married Women” the author Deepa M. Rasquinha says “Studies Depression Scale scores were generally good predictor of subsequent scores; however, shortly after bereavement prior scores proved relatively uninformative as most widows experienced a marked increase in depressive symptomatology.” Linking this to the narrator it it’s shown that life has always been the same because once a person is widowed that person begins to get sadder by day. In the poem the speaker starts to fall asleep and starts to hurt himself mentally making him get depressed once he hears a knock on the door. Today for widowed people it’s still the

Mental disorders are becoming more prevalent in today's society as people add stress and pressure to their daily lives. The elderly population is not eliminated as a candidate for a disorder just because they may be retired. In fact, mental disorders affect 1 in 5 elderly people. One would think that with disorders being rather prevalent in this age group that there would be an abundance of treatment programs, but this is not the case. Because the diagnosis of an individual's mental state is subjective in nature, many troubled people go untreated regularly (summer 1998). Depression in the elderly population is a common occurrence, yet the diagnosis and treatment seem to slip

In the western world statistics indicate a clear rise in numbers in relation to older prisoners. The definition of an older prisoner tends to be in the age group of 50- 65. The growth of the older prison population presents a number of challenges for governments, correctional administrators, healthcare providers and community agencies. The social reality of the increase of ageing prisoners has become part of the research agenda in criminology and gerontology internationally. Even though research on ageing in the general Irish population is gaining strength, the focus in regard to ageing in Irish prisons is very limited. The key issues relating to older prisoners are as follows: mental health, physical health, poor nutrition, substance misuse such as drug abuse and alcohol abuse. Prisoners tend to age more quickly than non prisoners.