The issue of mental health and the elderly is particularly serious, owing to the fact that suicide seems to play the major role of all other conditions.
A particularly tragic statistic was reported by Dr.
Brown, a suicide specialist at the University of Pennsylvania.
It seems that in 75% of cases that he studied, the families of the suicide victims had informed them of their intentions to end their lives, but were ignored.
Mental illness generally is more prevalent in the elderly than in the rest of the population, but this figure can hardly be surprising.
Far too many elderly people live on their own.
They no longer can, nor wish, to work.
They have to watch relatives and friends of their own age die off, leaving them more and more isolated.
Nevertheless, we've all heard it said many times that you should plan for retirement.
People tend to leave their jobs and careers behind them as though a great weight has been lifted from their shoulders.
You certainly can't blame them for that.
If they've managed their affairs sensibly, they have a nice pension on which to live, and glorious days of golf, or sitting with their feet up on the front porch with a nice glass of scotch, stretch like a golden road before them.
Now all that's fine for those who can afford the lifestyle, but how about the poor old chap who's stuck on Social Security, or the widow who's husband died and left her without a penny? All the more reason why people should plan for the years when they're no longer working.
That being said, so many don't.
Dr.
Gary Kennedy, director of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Centre in the Bronx, makes it clear that depression is not a normal nor inevitable part of growing old, nor is it harder to treat.
It is, however, the most prevalent illness.
We've noted that so many older people live on their own and if they're of an introverted nature, and have no-one to care for them, or even to look in on them to make sure they're all right, then the world simply passes them by.
Dr.
Kennedy points out, too, that they can commit a sort of passive suicide.
They stop eating, or at best survive on snacks.
They stop taking their medication and become dangerously sedentary.
He recommends that they should be screened periodically, so that it may be ascertained that they're not completely losing interest in life and heading into a dangerously depressed state which may lead to suicide.
We've noted in a previous article, however, that persuading an elderly person to undergo any sort of test, particularly if it involves their mental well being, can be an art in itself! I agree wholeheartedly with Dr.
Kennedy's suggestions.
It's their practice that can prove tricky.
Alcohol, too, can play an injurious part.
After all, the poor old person's all alone.
No-one visits them and all they have are the ghosts of the past.
These spectres are made more real, perhaps, with the help of a bottle of scotch.
Maybe the faces become clearer, the old times come alive again.
The main problem is that falls can result because of their drinking, and who's there to pick them up? Alzheimer's goes without saying, but other dementia can take their toll, two in particular.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a viral infection which can lead to a rapid downward spiral.
Medications, too, can cause problems.
These days, it seems, more and more medications are being dished out and someone elderly, with a slower metabolism, can experience toxic levels of these drugs more quickly.
This means that the drugs can interact, causing mood changes and symptoms of dementia.
There are some wonderful organizations out there doing marvellous work.
How I wish we could multiply their number by a hundred