Suicide Prevention Group Delivers Much Needed Message To Pennsylvania's Elderly
Main Category: Seniors / AgingAlso Included In: Depression
Article Date: 17 May 2008 - 1:00 PDT
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This month, in recognition of National Mental Health Month and Older Pennsylvanians Month, Feeling Blue Suicide Prevention Council (SPC) will offer an important message to senior citizens through a public service announcement. The public service announcement developed by Feeling Blue SPC is intended to bring awareness to the public health problem of depression and to offer hope to older Pennsylvanians who may be feeling suicidal: You are not alone in your feelings of depression. There's hope and there's help.
Older adults are the highest risk population in the country, but few suicide prevention programs target them. Through a grant provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Health, Feeling Blue SPC has been able to make this objective possible.
"As a responsible society, we must ensure the mental health and well-being of our older population," said Department of Health Secretary Dr. Calvin B. Johnson. "We hope this announcement can help spread the message that depression is not a 'normal' part of aging and that suicide can be prevented."
The statistics surrounding elderly suicide are alarming. According to the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention, a division of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, risk factors for suicide among older persons differ from those among the young. Elderly people are also more socially isolated. Additionally, approximately three quarters of the older adults who die by suicide have visited a physician within one month of taking their life.
Feeling Blue Suicide Prevention Council (SPC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing suicide, reducing the stigma associated with suicide, and supporting those people affected by depression or by the loss of a loved one to suicide. They do this through education, training and linking people with a variety of resources.
Feeling Blue Suicide Prevention Council
http://www.feelingblue.com
Visit our seniors / aging section for the latest news on this subject.
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13 Feb. 2012. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/107829.php>
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http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/107829.php.
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Address Underlying And Reality Based Reasons For Elder Suicide
posted by Kathy Kelley on 17 May 2008 at 10:06 amAs the primary caregiver of an 89 year-old demented mother, I see an other side of this issue as a rational response to an irrational system. I have been looking for alternatives to caring for my mother for well over a year. As a community college instructor with one child in college and the unpaid college debts for another, I cannot even consider the $80,000 per year tag for skilled nursing for my mom. Although she has MediCal, no quality program will or can admit her -- there is a shortage of beds and they cannot afford to accept the low MediCal reimbursement rate.
As a result, the entire family pays the cost in innumerable ways of having the responsibility for the care of a largely disabled, incapable person. To just go out to dinner and a movie, we have to pay $15-16 per hour for caregivers to come into our home. And, this care has to be arranged for in advance, is not always reliable, and due to cost is not enough to really provide relief.
My mother would NOT want to be alive anymore -- she would and does hate her total dependency on me, the humiliation of losing bodily control in every aspect of her being and all the rest of what dementia brings to what was once considered the 'golden age'.
I often wonder how much more I could contribute to society if I were not so burdened with her care -- although I appreciate being able to be there for her. I also wonder what the long-term cost will be to my own family and the society. I and so many thousands of others live with the stress of inadequate support, inordinate worry, incalculable hours and resources necessitated by the very old and demented population. This puts all of us, who are not old yet, and could be productive contributors at early risk of morbidity, mortality and reduced capacity.
I do not want to appear cold-hearted and bitter. I am neither. But these costs and implications of living a long life without the necessary social support are also a caring way to think about old age, depression and related ills.
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