A Study on Social Issues in Geriatric Mental Health Care

Aging is a natural and universal process. Old age is considered as the last stage of human life span. In the words of Seneca, ‘Old age is an incurable disease’. The geriatric population is defined as population constituted by people of age 60 years and above. WHO defines Health as a complete state of physical, psychological and social aspects. Mental Health is considered to be a good state of well-being. In modern India, as the population of the elders is increasing at an alarming rate, they suffer from a lot of social problems which affects the mental health status to a great extent. A study was conducted to understand the social problems affecting the mental health status of the geriatric population. The descriptive and exploratory research design was adapted to carry out the study, interview schedule and observation techniques adopted as a tool to elicit data from the 60 elderly respondents living in families in Mysuru district of Karnataka state, who were selected for the study. Chi-square statistical test was used to analyze the data by using SPSS Package. The study reveals that changes in the structure and function of family system, changes in social roles and responsibilities, and changes in social relationship and interaction affect the mental health status of the geriatric population living in a family to a great extent in the modern period. Application of social work methods such as Case work, Group work and Social work researches can be conducted for focusing on the unraveled areas of the issues of elders, which is helpful in redressing the poor mental health conditions of geriatric population, and in turn resulting in social well-being.