Depression in the elderly!

[NorthernRedneck]

My neighbour committed suicide this week by hanging himself in his garage. He was a fairly healthy man all his life up until two years ago when he started having heart problems. He was in his mid eighties and lived with his wife of 54years. He went out for coffee with the boys in the morning, came home and told his wife he was going to get a tire fixed at the garage and he'd be back for luch. Lunch time came and went and he wasn't around. SHe went out in the garage to check on him and found him hanging there.

He had sufferred two heart attacks in the past two years and was in and out of the hospital and became very depressed about being sick when he had been healthy all his life. My question is: What can we do about depression in the elderly? I do know that this is a re-occurring problem with many older people in our society. We must all be aware of the signs and symptoms so that something like this does not happen any more.

 

[resigirl]

Thats so sad. I think we have to look in on our neighbours make sure they are not feelong lonely and that they have everything they need. Make them feel like someone cares about them.

 

[jbrumberg]

Having worked with the geriatric population for over 15 years and directed an Alzheimers Unit for over three years I had to respond to this old post. Brian D. you are right on about depression and the elderly . That gentleman was "at risk" . Resigirl there should be more people like you in the world .

Jay

PS: After working with the elderly which included end of life support for all those years I had to make the shift to working with adolescents .

 

[dzalphakilo]

Thats so sad. I think we have to look in on our neighbours make sure they are not feelong lonely and that they have everything they need. Make them feel like someone cares about them.

resigirl, I have to ask, when was the last time you looked in on your elderly neighbors?

Personally, I've seen a lot of people say "oh gee, lets help", and then "thats it", they walk away from the issue like it never exisited. I guess as long as people feel sad about something, somehow it's supposed to make the situation better.

Try doing some local work at your nursing home. See why the elderly get so depressed, and see the people who are underpaid trying to care for those same people who get depressed. Personally, you could never pay me enough to deal with people who are old, dying and seem like they have no more control over their lives on a regular basis.

I can really understand why older people would want to kill themselves.

That said, sometimes when your young you take too many things for granted.

By the way, I do weekly volunteer work at the local nursing home.

 

[thcri]

I had an employee about 5 years ago hang himself about a year after he left our company. He only worked for us about a year and left to go back to his home town to spend more time with his son. His X had taken away all visitation rights and he was going back, hiring an attorney to get his rights back. He wasn't able to make any headway and just gave up on life. He only worked for us about a year and 6 months after he left us is when he committed suicide. He was 33 years old.


murph

 

[Galvatron]

the elderly are so often abandoned by their family's and feel so alone in life just like my dear neighbour.

she is 86 and and lives with a brain tumour that doctors said would not let her see 2006....but she has defied the odds and is still going strong.she gets very frustrated and lonely at times but thats where we step in.....my wife does the lawns once a week and and gives her the little company she needs and deserves.

anything she needs doing around the house thats hard for her to manage we do and our children get involved in helping out wherever they can with small jobs like taking the trash out for her.

yes as like many older people she can be stuck in her ways and awkward at times but this does not mean she should be excluded from society....she asks and get no state help and maintains a nice home....so i feel it's our duty to help out where we can....and shame on her family that live just a few miles down the road.....honest they live 10 min drive away and only show up at christmas and on their birthdays just to collect any prezzies she may have bought for them.

the answer then in my opinion is we all need to care a little more.

 

[Deadly Sushi]

My dad is depressed. But hes bi-polar. He is on disability. He is 65 and doesnt have much money so he doesnt do much anymore. He is even afraid to drive.

 

[NorthernRedneck]

I was looking around at some of my old threads and found this one so I thought I'd give an update.

My elderly neighbor is still living next door. She's still shaken up about loosing her husband that way. I talk to her quite frequently and help her out when I can. Personally, I don't think she should be living alone. Just the other day, she called us at around 10pm because she couldn't remember how to turn on her tv. Another time, she couldn't figure out how to turn on her flashlight during a power outage. A few months ago, I pulled up behind her at the post office and she was sitting in her car all flustered. I walked up to her car and she was almost in tears because she'd put her car in drive and nothing would happen. Guess what......she hadn't even started her car yet!

I feel bad about the whole situation but it's not my place to do anything. I've spoken with her family informing them of the things I've seen lately but that's about all I can do. So, I'll just keep an eye out next door to make sure everything's alright. She has gotten better about driving and things like that but every now and then, she'll come up with something totally out of the ordinary.

 

[muleman]

Stopping to visit and chat is something I try to do with several of the neighbors around me. I plow their snow and always take time to have a chat with them. We share vegetables and fruit and have them up for a meal. They have my number and know they can call if they have a problem. Too often elderly suffer from lack of interaction with folks around them and this leads to depression. We all need to do our part.