Psychosocial Rehabilitation

Assignment I

Literature Review on “Old Age and Psychosocial

Rehabilitation”

It is a commonly held belief that an individual’s early childhood and old age are the two
epochs wherein they are in requirement of utmost assistance and care. The onset old age in
one’s life is irrefutably a sensitive phase, elderly people need consideration and comfort in
order to lead a physically and psychologically sound life devoid of any concerns and
apprehensions. The psychological distress caused at this age can majorly be contributed to the
lack of societal and familial awareness regarding the changing behavioural patterns in elderly
people. Furthermore, a lack of communication and factors such as generation gap add to
issues that affect the lives of senior citizens and further complicate into major physiological
and psychological problems. Unfortunately, there has been a myriad of reports of the elderly
being exploited, harassed and abandoned in our own society which ironically holds values
equating elders to a godlike status. These incidents aren’t isolated and have an undeniable
detrimental effect on the psychological state of the elderly and substantiate the need for a
holistic approach towards their rehabilitation into society.

The mortality rate for the elderly population has seen a significant rise over the past few
decades due to advancements in medicine, knowledge and edification regarding health care
practices. Nonetheless, these individuals are confronted with new challenges through copious
varieties of physical, psychological and social vicissitudes that challenge their sense of self
and capacity to live happily. As will be elucidated in the literature review, there is no dearth
of the elderly experiencing loneliness and depression in old age, either as a result of living
alone or due to lack of close family ties and reduced connections with their culture of origin,
which results in an inability to actively participate in the community activities. With
advancing age, it is inevitable that people lose connection with their friendship networks and
that they find it more difficult to initiate new friendships and to belong to new networks. The
present study was conducted to investigate the relationships among depression, loneliness and
sociability in elderly people.

The fundamental concept of psychosocial rehabilitation relies on the fact that individuals with
mental health concerns need not solely clinical assistance but also aids in the form of societal
and familial support. In a general sense the purpose of this conception is to enable individuals
who are dealing with any psychosocial disturbances to acclimatize back into society and
function at a level that allows them to function independently at an optimal level as well as
improving their quality of life through strengthening their emotional wellbeing and self-
worth. In context of the elderly, a majority of them have already completed the occupational
period of their lives and tend to depend on their family for financial and emotional support.
More often than not, there have been reports of them being maltreated and abandoned as
these duties are seen as a burden.