Question

For this assignment, imagine you have been contacted by an agency in your community to provide consultation on how they might improve their services to clients. The agency is concerned that clients with serious counseling issues are "falling between the cracks" when they are referred to others in the community for intensive treatment. Furthermore, the brief aftercare they provide is not accessible enough to sufficiently support clients as they re-integrate into the community.

1) Identify elderly individuals who are socially isolated and depressed.

2) Evaluate how elderly individuals who are socially isolated and depressed have been served in the history of clinical mental health counseling.

Answer 1

Elderly individuals need good care and suport in the community.Individuals who have been isolated and depressed need geriatric counseling.There are situations when the elderly are living alone or in a community setting.However community setting is preferable as they interact with each other, social activites are included, frequent physical and mental health monitoring system established the impact of depression in older adults may prove to be more fatal than younger individuals.There are community based counselors,psychiatrists,social workers who contribute to counseling of elderly.They believe that all people face challenges as they grow but need to be free of stress and anxiety. Counsellors need to knowledgable about developmental process,to understand biological loss,emotional reactions to family and adjustment to retirement.Elders are often faced with cognitive issues such as dementia,alzheimers which can be supported or prevented with sound mental health counseling.Mental health counseling in elderly has gone beyond just mere counseling but helping them cope with day to day problems they face as they age.