Mental Health Care in Elderly Patient- Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Mental Health Care in Elderly Patient. Answer: There are number of mental disorders which are common in older adults and this include depression, anxiety disorders, dementia, delirium, schizophrenia and in extreme cases suicide (Cole Dendukuri 2013). However, the majority of the mental disorder mentioned above do not necessarily occurs as a result of aging. Research suggests that 18 to 37 percent of the older adults suffer from depression during the later part of their life (Inouye et al. 2014). The older people tend to give priority on their physical complications and refuse to acknowledge that they actually feel extremely depressed or sad. They feel that there is a stigma associated with the discussion of mental health conditions (Bridle et al. 2012). However, the consequences of mental disorders are detrimental including functional disability, hamper in the quality of life and disturb rehabilitation (Taylor 2014). Mental disorder if not treatment on time may lead to the generation of some complex somatic disease and hence the old patients are in a great need to both psychological assistance, wellbeing there and supportive care (Barry Edgman-Levitan 2012). The pathophysiology of the mental disorder is complex. The principal pathological impression of the development of the mental illness is the formation of the extracellular amyloid plaques along with intracellular neurofibrillary tangles. This congestion in the brain cells is further accompanied with synaptic degeneration, aneuploidy and hippocampal loss of neurons. These plaques and tangles lead to the generation of several symptoms of mental illness. The major symptoms of the mental disorders include loss of memory, difficulties in thinking or concentrating, lack of problem-solving skills and difficulty in communicating or language problem (Deacon 2013). Out of the several mental illnesses, dementia is mostly common in elderly people. The major symptoms get reflected affected late 50s and the severity increases with the age. A person with dementia may also experience sudden mood swings, throws tantrums and unrelated behaviour. Mental illness of the older adults, if not treated on an urgent basis may take a severe shape. However, the burden of mental illness is borne not only by patient, but also by their carers, both in terms of informal and professional. The pathophysiology of the mental illness shows that the mental illness causes depression so in order to provide effective care to the older adult patients with mental illness, I will prefer anti-depressant like selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs). SSRIs is has comparatively low side-effects and hence more suitable for the treatment of older patients as they are more vulnerable to adverse effects (Pehrson et al. 2013). Proper yet effective treatment of depression causes improvement in the quality of life both the patients and care-givers and also reduces the chances of committing suicides (Pehrson et al. 2013). The mental disorders are either the outcome of the some somatic disease or may eventually lead to the development of the same. Few of the most common somatic disease that are associated with mental illness among the older adults are Cardiac problems (commonly coronary heart disease), Diabetes mellitus, Parkinson, Alzheimer, Cancer, Primary chronic polyarthritis (Kessler et al. 2012). So my understanding of the related pathophysiology of the mental health disease says that the patient centred of mental illness should not only be directed towards the metal complications. I will incorporate timely check up and analysis of the symptoms of the associated somatic diseases in the assessment practice. One of the leading causes of mental illness (mostly depression) among the older adults is lack of social life and support from the family. So the myself, as a nurse or a care giver will practice extensive communication strategy in order to provide them social support and fight back against the loneliness. Research suggests adequate social and emotional support is associated with a reduced susceptibility of mental and physical illness along with morbidity (Clark et al. 2012). Adults with mental illness are usually extremely disappointed with their life so in order to promote their well being, I will observe regular counselling program. Counselling program will include cognitive behavioural therapy, mini mental state examination tool and General Practitioner Assessment of of Cognition Score or GPCOG Screening Test (Clark et al. 2012). Such therapy or test are found to promote personal strength/ self esteemed, improve thinking are concentration related problems along with mood swings (G ould et al. 2012). Supportive care is the principal component for older adults with mental illness. Supportive care is defines as the care given deliver to improve the quality of life of the patients. The principal goal of the supportive care is to give support to the psychological and spiritual problems of the patients along with encouraging them to take medicines and combat the side-effects which are associated with physiological complications (Lloyd et al. 2014). The supportive care is defined as an extensive of palliative care so that the older adults with mental disorders like dementia or anxiety receives good quality yet holistic care that make no difference between the dichotomies of quality care and significant cure from the time of disease diagnosis until and beyond, death (Lloyd et al. 2014). As a nurse I believe that the individual complexity associated with the older adults with mental illness must be embraced with absolute dedication and enthusiasm. Via providing such dedicated support, I will try to improve the quality of lives of both the patients as well as their carers. Supportive Care Plan Biological Psychological Social Spiritual Ethical and Legal Quality treatment based on the geneticback up of the disease (Cotelli et al. 2012) Proper genetic counselling (Cotelli et al. 2012) Extensive review of the lifestyle factors Proper acknowledgement and support towards the spiritual thoughts (Cotelli et al. 2012) Focus on the person oriented care centre (Cotelli et al. 2012) Reduction of the biological risk factors associated with mental health like cardiovascular disease (Cotelli et al. 2012) Proper emotional support to the patient suffering from depression and dementia (Cotelli et al. 2012) Review and analysis of the environmental risk factors such as risk associated with wandering behaviour (Cotelli et al. 2012) Help in observing specific religious practices (Cotelli et al. 2012) Giving proper medical diagnosis (Cotelli et al. 2012) Thus from the above essay it can be concluded that mental health disorders among the older adults is not majorly due to the physical complication and often remains untreated or unrecognised. I as a nurse in the elderly care domain will promote the strategy of supportive care, well being care to improve the overall mental health backup of these patients. Moreover, I will also take the pathophysiology into consideration to treat or handle the disease accordingly. Reference List Barry, M.J. Edgman-Levitan, S., 2012, Shared decision makingthe pinnacle of patient-centered care, New England Journal of Medicine,vol. 366, no. 9, pp.780-81. Bridle, C., Spanjers, K., Patel, S., Atherton, N.M. Lamb, S.E., 2012, Effect of exercise on depression severity in older people: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials, The British Journal of Psychiatry,vol. 201, no. 3, pp.180-85. Clark, F., Jackson, J., Carlson, M., Chou, C.P., Cherry, B.J., Jordan-Marsh, M., Knight, B.G., Mandel, D., Blanchard, J., Granger, D.A. 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