Senior Citizens: There is a need to create large number of geriatric counselors

Senior Citizens: There is a need to create large number of geriatric counselors

In the present-day context of withering away of extended family and elders being forced to stay alone, there is a greater need of such emotional intervention by external experts i.e. geriatric counselors.

Dr A K Sen GuptaUpdated: Saturday, July 09, 2022, 01:11 PM IST
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FPJ

In the last article, we talked about need of creating a cadre of trained and skilled caregivers to provide comfort and basic support to the ailing elderly in India, whose number can be as high as 27 million. In addition to caregivers, we also need a large number of trained geriatric counselors. These are educated and trained professionals who can provide counseling support to the elderly to tackle their emotional and psychological issues that are of crucial importance.

Many elders suffer from serious emotional issues like anxiety, depression, mood swing, acute feeling of loneliness, fear of death, among others. While clinical depressions need medical intervention, there is also a need to help elderly with emotional and caring support from trained counselors.

It is here that geriatric counselors supplement efforts of families, supporting society and medical intervention. In the present-day context of withering away of extended family and elders being forced to stay alone, there is a greater need of such emotional intervention by external experts i.e. geriatric counselors.

The process of any counseling is, by and large, similar and comprises broadly of the following steps:

1. Building of rapport: This is the first stage whereby there is an open communication between the counselor and the elderly and this results into mutual understanding, sense of togetherness and confidence. This rapport building is essential as otherwise the counselor will not be able to proceed further in terms of providing support as it might not be accepted by the elderly.

2. Identification of problem: This is crucial as the intervention process/tools will depend on what the problem is. Symptoms may not necessarily be the cause but it may be result of some other deeper issue. Understanding emotive/psychological aspect of the fundamental issues being faced by elder becomes crucial. Knowledge/training of the counselor becomes handy to dissect core problem(s) faced by the elderly.

3. Creating a roadmap: Here comes the path whereby the counselor in consultation with elderly client creates strategy to tackle problems faced by the patient. This helps the counselor to design remedial tools to handle problem(s) in hand. It must be clearly understood that the counselor is providing a professional support and therefore, should not get emotionally attached with the elderly. Being non-judgmental and professional at the same time is the hallmark of a true counselor.

4. Undertaking review: This is critical as it will help to assess impact of the counseling and its effectiveness. This will also assist the counselor to change track of support, if need be.

The above process implies that counseling involves a scientific way of assessing problems being faced by an elderly individual and trying to provide an emotive/psychological support system to counter the same.
This is dome through companionship, friendly advice, providing help to
empower the elderly to become stronger and stand on his/her legs, and
always giving a friendly support.

The challenges, however, are many. As elders face different types of problems both physical as well as mental, it may sometime be difficult to
provide solutions to all. Elders might also look at the counselors with an
eye of suspicion and winning confidence is a difficult task. To sustain the
results on a medium to long-term basis is the other difficult matter in the
context of issues related to elderly.

These challenges become serious when counselors face elders who are suffering from serious mental diseases like Dementia or Alzheimer’s or
Parkinson’s. To deal with these elderly patients, special attitude on part
of the counselors is needed besides professional competencies. The
caring attitude and deep sense of empathy are two significant attitudes
that any successful counselor should possess besides other practical expertise like playing games, music, basic puzzles and other activities.

There is often a question where these two terms are synonymous in
terms of their role on the ground. There is a subtle difference between
the two. While caregivers work on ground taking care of physical and
sometimes mental activities of the elderly on a daily basis, counselors
cater to psychological aspects through providing emotive support. Of
course, caregivers become better in their role, if they are groomed in
basics of counseling. At the same time, trained counselors are also
sometimes seen to act as caregivers. But fundamentally, they have
different roles to play as far as elder issues are concerned.

Counseling has a significant impact on life of an elderly person. A good
counseling process can help the elderly to feel better, agile, and happy.
There are many cases where we have seen the elders suffering from
serious problems like anxiety or depression recovering and leading a
normal life. A good counselor is like an “angel sent by God” to the elderly
and boon in process of happy aging.

There are very few dedicated educational programs on geriatric
counseling in India. To tackle the growing psychological issues faced by
elderly, country requires a large number (may be up to 10,000 to 15,000
per year as per some estimates) of geriatric counselors. They are
needed at old age homes, day care centers, geriatric wards of hospitals,
palliative hospitals and other similar places. There is substantive scope
for geriatric counselors to start their entrepreneurial set up. These
entrepreneur counselors can provide support to “elderly on need basis”
through contacts provided by visions NGOs. There is also an urgent
need of creating sensitivity among children and youth about problems of
elderly and these geriatric counselors can play a big role in this process.
India is a country where there will be significant scope for trained and
skilled geriatric counselors who can provide support to needy elderly in
process of their happy aging.

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