ors. Contemporary studies have also indicated that depression in older adults often results from a sense of powerlessness on their part.11 Effective verbal and non verbal communications skills have been found to enhance and elderly person's sense of control. Thus, the development of effective communications skills in older adults is one means of either minimizing the probability of onset, or maximizing the probability of correction of depression.
The problem confronting the nurse in this situation, thus, involves changing the behavior of the six elderly individuals. The behavioral change must lead to a reduction in the level of loneliness experienced by these individuals and to reductions in the adverse behaviors exhibited in response to the experience of loneliness.
As individuals age, both psychological and physiological changes occur which, on the one hand, cause interpersonal communication to become more difficult, while, on the other hand, enhancing the need for effective interpersonal communication.
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