I thought this article from yesterday’s New York Times made interesting reading. It explores how in the US where more and more people are living longer and the stigma of psychological counselling has diminished more older people are turning to counsellors to discuss issues they may have on their mind.
This is really encouraging as the article notes that the current older generation were brought up to believe that only “crazy” people would attend counseling and if someone admitted to being depressed then they could be “locked up and someone would throw away the key”, so its fantastic to see this generation are big enough to rise above these attitudes that were the attitudes of the day.
Here at Be Independent Home Care we note that in Ireland according to Aware, depression affects about one in ten people aged over 65, making it the most common of the mental health disorders of later life so hopefully this trend will catch on here.
Read the full New York Times article here: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/04/22/how-therapy-can-help-in-the-golden-years/?ref=elderly