There’s been a lot of research about patients with terminal conditions and Anxiety and depression. Not so much about healthy older adults with the same conditions. But it seems like research is accelerating in this area, and I hope that it trickles down to the general practitioners who treat the majority of older adults.

@Nicholas, thanks for dropping by and commenting! And thanks for the compliments!

The stigma of mental illness is alive and well, but not so much alive and well as it used to be. People couldn’t get jobs or insurance, and were ostracized if they admitted they had a mental disorder, so you can understand why they didn’t seek the help they so desperately needed. It’s a little better now, but not much.

Organizations like NAMI and Mental Health America are doing what they can to reduce the stigma of mental illness, but it’s going to take a campaign from the highest levels, i.e. government, to really be effective. Sadly, I don’t see that happening any time soon. Click the NAMI and Mental Health America badges in the right sidebar to learn more.

However, each and every one of us can do our part to reduce the stigma by communicating our displeasure when we see stereotypes in the media, educating our friends and family about how our culture perpetuates stigma through language and stereotypes, and by helping them get treatment when needed.

I regret… perhaps I should say that I am fortunate that I have little to add right now, as most of the elderly that I know are getting good health care and seem to be doing very well for themselves. Psychiatric disorders have run in my father’s side of the family and my mother’s father’s, but her father is seeing a professional and managing with his medication very well.

I wish I could have done more for my father and his family, but by the time I was old enough to recognize that he needed help for his problems he had passed away. The sad thing is that he was not even 50… which I suppose is “an old man” by today’s standards. So much could have been avoided if only he could admit to himself that he had a problem and taken the appropriate steps to fix it.

Keep up the good work!

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