Elderly Depression Essay There is a big problem within the elderly community. That problem is depression; specifically depression within nursing homes/assisted living communities. This is mainly a problem caused by factors such as loneliness and “poor quality of life”(National Institute of Health 2017). Currently, depression affects 49% of elderly in nursing homes (CDC 2014). This is a substantially higher percentage than the other percentages of elderly depression in day centers, hospice and etc. Why are we interested in this issue? We are interested in this issue because we find that it is important to take care of people who are depressed, but we find it especially necessary to take care of the depressed elderly. Also we think it is important to help others and we think others should as well. We feel personally compelled to pursue this issue because we have experienced depression around us in our family and friends. This really influences us to do something to help towards the issue. Other people should feel compelled to care about this issue because the elderly are very important. Also the elderly deserve to be happy after such a long life; they do not deserve to be depressed. Depression is a serious topic that many people aren't aware of, especially depression among the elderly. Many people may think it is not as important because they are old or that they have lived through everything, but they still have a life to live. Depression among the elderly is common but it's not really known. The elderly often times develop symptoms of depression due to the deaths of their loved ones, medical problems, or just any changes major or not. Depression manly affects the elderly because of any medications they use and or diseases they may have. Depression is common due to the fact that they are ageing. Depression affects 20% of Americans older than 65 year of age (Platt 2018). This is important; it might not look like a lot but it’s still a pretty big percentage of the population. All of the diseases/ health problems they may have might lead them to frustration and eventually depression. Elderly depression is a major problem amongst sixty year-old and older patients in nursing homes and hospitals. They can develop serious mental issues and disabilities. These may affect their mental condition and social activities(healthline 2017). The elderly may feel sad or not normal, but they shouldn't be depressed. Their depression is often from their genes as well as physical and psychological problems(healthline 2017). Depression becomes worse as the mind ages. Many people have tried to fix and eliminate signs and symptoms of elderly depression(PCM 2006). People try things such as pills and medicine to mainly limit symptoms. Some hospitals have even done surgery procedures to fix the mental illness(PMC 2006). Many elderly try to seek psychological help and or counselor to help with depression. Nursing homes also try to stay upbeat and interact with the elderly and entertain them to help improve their living(PMC 2006). Many things that people do with the elderly is to have get them lots of exercise and also establish new hobbies as well as family visits and family time(PMC 2006). There are many things people have done to improve elderly depression. What can I do? I can go volunteer with my acquaintances, at a nursing home. We would love to enjoy long conversations with the elderly, or play games with them. We would love to just volunteer wherever they may need support. We’ve called (The Morningside of Raleigh) a retirement home and they would be happy with us volunteering! The service day is prospectively on June 6th. The preferred amount of students to go volunteer at Morningside is 15-20 students. The students and their parents would have to fill out Wake County’s permission slips, those are the only requirements of Morningside of Raleigh. We would take a bus, it’s a six minute ride, round trip. We need volunteers who will be respectful, quiet, patient, and volunteers who are less hyper. We have to remember that these citizens need assistance but some students may not work well with elders. They would need to be productive, to participate with activities we do. Also, they would have to help brainstorm fun games, recreation or pastimes. If you had to decide which students were to go to the elderly home, who would fit the requirements/preferred persona for the job? Our final goal is to help the elderly. We want to bring a little joy into their lives. We know that living in an elderly home may have a dreary effect on someone’s life. They may become depressed, lonely, and/or bored. Hopefully, when we volunteer, we’ll play games and have fun with them, which will hopefully brighten up their day. Work Cited Diefenbach, Gretchen and Goethe, John. “Clinical Interventions for Late-Life Anxious Depression”. National Centerfor Biotechnology Information. March 2006. 26 Jan.2018<https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2682453/ > Hurley,Katie. ”Depression in the elderly.” psycom. 2 November 2017. 25 January 2018<https://www.psycom.net/depression.central.elderly.html> Kavael, Linda et. all. “Associations between physical function and depression in nursing home residents with mild and moderate dementia: a cross-sectional study”. National Center for Biotechnology Information. 20 Jul.2017. 22 Jan.2018 <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5541615/> Krans, Brian. “ Geriatric Depression (Depression in Older Adults)”. Healthline. 22 Jun.2017. 24Jan.2018 <https://www.healthline.com/health/depression/elderly#Overview1> Platt,Kelly. ”Depression in older adults.” thagroup. 9 January 2014. 24 January 2018<http://www.thagroup.org/depression-older-adults/> Rome, Vincent. “Percentage of Users* of Long-Term Care Services with a Diagnosis of Depression,† by Provider Type — National Study of Long-Term Care Providers, United States, 2011 and 2012”. Center for disease control . 31 Jan.2014. 29 Jan.2018 <https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6304a7.htm> Secretary, The Morningside of Raleigh. Personal Interview. 25 January 2018. Written by: Rachel Smith ,Piper Baucom ,Dylan Causey ,Lupita Morales
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Homelessness is an issue in Durham also in there schools Homelessness is a problem in every part of this state but Durham has a problem that stood out to me. That problem was the number of people without homes and the the number of people without homes within the school district. Student education is important and if you are able to go to school its important for a student or anyone in general to have a home to sleep in, bathe in,be safe in, and to be able to do there school work. Within the 53 schools that make up the district they identified 1,000 students as homeless. That is quiet a lot of students without homes or that have a roof under their head but they have to share that roof with other people that they may not know. A good way to solve this might be to donate money to schools or to homeless shelters so that they can be able to buy a decent home for a family in need. We should help out by not only ignoring those in the streets but to try helping them in a way either by buying them a meal or giving them some money. With some effort and kindness of the people we can change the number of people without homes, the number of students without homes we can make a difference and help out. http://abc11.com/education/homelessness-impacts-students-as-they-head-back-to-school/2292664/ I believe I believe that things happen for a reason, nothing happens for a punishment and sometimes you need to let something go in order to know it was a good loss. Things happen when you least expect it and just recently something happened that I never wanted. I never wanted it to happen it was something I didn't even know was going to happen. I wasn't ready for a big change. In the the last days of January I knew something was wrong but I couldn't figure out what it was. My dad wasn't coming home from work and I stopped seeing him around I asked my mom what happened to my dad and all she told me was that he went to work far away , I believed her. After a month passed I started to wonder because he never called and he never came home. Towards the end of of March my mom asked my sister, brother, and me to sit down in the kitchen because she needed to talk to us, for a moment I thought we were all in trouble. Just having to sit there was very scary because none of knew what she was going to tell us. We were worried we did something wrong but no she had something more important to tell us. The first thing she said was sorry, she said she was sorry for the lies she told us. I was very confused. Then she told us that my dad left off to mexico but she didn't know why. A couple of months later (during the summer) we ended up having to move we moved into my cousin's house it's not that big of a house but we made it work. Move things from one house to the other was a lot of work good thing my mom's family was there to help. I'm still trying to get used to the big change I miss my friends, my school and my space. When I say space I mean me in my room doing whatever I want and not being disturbed and not getting in trouble for something my cousins think is wrong and I think it's right. It's hard living with people you're not used to be with for a long time they might be my family but i'm not used to being with them every day. Things are slowly getting better we all have days where we don't want anyone to talk to us and it's hard because we never know who is going to be in a bad mood. We are finding ways to get along and just have a smooth day without any arguments it not that bad once we all got to know eachother better. There are days when I just think back and ask myself why does this have to happen to me and my family, there's day where I wish I could still be back at home in my old school with all my friends but I know that can't happen. After this whole change I learned that things may be hard but it's all worth it at the end now i'm closer with my family i've learned different things about them. For other people that are going through the same thing may think that it's the worse thing in the world and it's a really bad change but I promise there is a bright side to it things will get better. Nothing is bad you just have to get used to things and wait for right now and just focus on the good things that are happening. |
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