Week 8: Mental Health Disorders And Pain/Comfort Flashcards
Stress and Stressors in Late Life
- The experience of stress is an internal state accompanying threats to self.
- The narrowing range of bio-Psychosocial homeostatic resilience and changing environmental needs as one ages may produce stress overload.
Effects of Stress
- Adults show greater immunological impairments associated with distress or depression
- Any stressors that occur in the lives of older people may actually be experienced as a crisis if the even occurs abruptly, is unanticipated or requires skills or resources the individual does not possess.
What are factors that affect stress?
- Cognitive style
- Coping strategies
- Social resources
- Personal efficacy
- Personality characteristics
- Social relationships and social support are particularly important in stress management/coping.
- Resilience
Factors influencing the ability to manage stress
….
General issues in the psychosocial assessment involves
Distinguishing among normal, idiosyncratic and diverse characteristics of aging and pathological conditions.
Mental Health Assessment in Older Adults includes examination for
- Cognitive Function
- Conditions of Anxiety
- Adjustment Reactions
- Depression
- Paranoia
- Substance Abuse
- Suicidal Risk
Mental Health in Older Adults: Interventions
- Enhancing Characteristics of resilience and resourcefulness
- Promote a sense of control, fostering social supports, relationships and connecting to resources.
- Meditation, yoga, exercise, spirituality and religiosity can enhance coping ability.
- Mind-body therapies are most helpful.
- Reminiscence is useful in understanding coping style.
Factors Influencing Mental Health: Attitudes and Beliefs
- Nearly half of people >65 with recognized mental or substance use disorder have unmet needs for services.
- May be looked at as a normal consequences of aging or blamed on dementia.
Why are older adults with recognized mental or substance use disorder have unmet needs for services?
- Reluctance on the part of older people to seek help because of pride of independence.
- Stoic acceptance of difficulty.
- Unawareness of resources
- Lack of geriatric health professionals and services.
- Lack of adequate insurance coverages.
Factors Influencing Mental Health: Culture and Mental Health
- What may be defined as mental illness in one culture may be viewed as normal in another.
- Sexual minority individuals, particularly older gay men, demonstrate higher rates of mental disorders, substance abuse, suicidal ideation and deliberate self-harm than heterosexual populations.
Availability of Mental Health Care
- Dedicated financing for older duly mental health is limited.
- Medicare spends five times more on beneficiaries with severe mental illness and substance abuse disorders than on similar beneficiaries without these disorders.
- Psychiatric services may be provided by a psychiatrist, psychologist, licensed clinical social worker, nurse practitioner, or geropsychiatric clinical nurse specialist.
Factors of Influencing Mental Health: Settings of Care
Older people receive psychiatric services across a wide range of settings, including acute and long-term impatient psychiatric units, primary care and community and institutional settings.
Obstacles to Care in Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Facilities
- Shortage of trained personnel
- Limited availability and access for psychiatric services
- Lack of staff training related to mental health/illness
- Inadequate Medicaid/Medicare reimbursement
Anxiety Disorder
- Unpleasant and unwarranted feelings of apprehension, which may be accompanied by physical symptoms.
- Not considered a part of normal aging process.
Anxiety disorders become problematic when
- Prolonged
- Exaggerated
- Interferes with function
Late life anxiety is often
Comorbid with major depressive disorder, cognitive decline and dementia and substance abuse.
Consequences of Anxiety include
- Decreased physical activity and functional status
- Sleep disturbances
- Increased health services use
- Substance abuse
- Decreased life satisfaction
- Increased mortality
- Increased hospitalizations
Anxiety: Assessment focuses on
- Physical, social, and environmental factors
- Past life history
- Long-standing personality
- Coping
- Recent events
Anxiety: Interventions depend on
- Symptoms
- Specific anxiety diagnosis
- Co-morbid medical conditions
- Current medication regimen
Anxiety Pharmacological Interventions
- First line: SSRIs
- Second line: Short-acting benzodiazepines
Anxiety: Nonpharmacological Interventions
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
- Exposure Therapy
- Interpersonal Therapy
Post traumatic Stress Disorder
- A psychobiological mental disorder associated with changes in brain function and structure affecting survivors of combat, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, serious accidents, assault/abuse, sudden and major emotional losses.
- Can include both direct and indirect exposure.
Symptoms of PTSD includes four major symptom clusters for diagnosis:
- Reexperiencing
- Avoidance
- Persistent negative alterations in cognition and mood
- Alterations in arousal and receptivity
Consequences of PTSD
- Depression
- Co-occurring PTSD and depression is associated with greater symptoms, reduced quality of life and increased health care utilization.
- PTSD among Vietnam War veterans more than doubled the likelihood they would develop heart disease.
- There may be an association between PTSD and greater incidence and prevalence of dementia.
PTSD: Assessment
- Identify triggers
- Knowing the person’s past history and life experiences is essential in understanding behavior and implementing appropriate interventions.
PTSD: Interventions
- Can benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy and prolonged exposure therapy.
- Evidenced-based psycho-spiritual interventions.
- Pharmacological therapy.
Types of Schizophrenia
- Early onset (EOS): occurs before age 40
- Midlife onset: occurs between ages 40-60
- Late onset (LOS): after age 60
Late Onset Schizophrenia
More likely to be women, as paranoia is a dominant feature of illness and tens to have hallucinations.
Early Onset Schizophrenia
Individuals with EOS who have grown older may experience fewer hallucinations, delusions and bizarre behavior, as well as inappropriate affect.
Consequences of Schizophrenia
- Life expectancy that is shorter by 20-23 years than that of an unaffected person.
- Incidence of dementia is twice as high.
- Costly disease in terms of suffering and medical costs.
Psychotic Symptoms in Older Adults include
- Paranoid Symptoms
- Delusions
- Hallucinations
Schizophrenia: Assessment
- The assessment dilemma is often one of of determining if paranoia, delusions and hallucinations are the result of medical illness, medications, dementia, psychoses, deprivation or overload because treatment will vary accordingly.
- Treatment must be based on comprehensive assessment.
- Assessment of vision and hearing is also important since these impairments may predispose the older person to paranoia or suspiciousness.