Suicide Among the Elderly
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INTRODUCTION This research provides an overview of the phenomenon of suicide among the elderly. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of this research if defining the term elderly, for, as the American population ages, the perception of who is old appears to be in almost continual adjustment. Both The Merriam Webster Third New International Dictionary, and The Random House Dictionary say that elderly is somewhat old. Websters adds that elderly is beyond middle age; however, it defines middle age simply as past youth and before old age. Random House is somewhat more definite on middle age, defining it as that period of human life from about 40 years old to about 60 years old. The Social Security Administration generally establishes 65 years old as the criterion for old age; however, if one is willing to accept a lower old age pension, one can be old at 62. By contrast, many of today's active people in their fifties and sixties prefer to think of old age as something that begins at 75. Arbitrarily, one could state that old age begins at that point in life when a minimum of 1.5 percent of one's age group peers may be expected to die in a single year. For the American population as a whole, that point is reached at age 62 (Bureau of the Census, 1991). For white males and black females, however, that point occurs at age 60, while for black males it occurs at age 52, and for white females not until age 66 (Bureau of the Census, 1991). There appears, therefore, to be
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effective interpersonal communication (Binstock, 1985). Often, neither the elderly individual, nor younger persons interacting with the elderly individual are cognizant of such changes. The outcomes of such a situation are, all too often, social and physical isolation for the elderly, with predictable further psychological and physiological deteriorations (Binstock, Levin, and Weatherley, 1985).
The earliest physiological aspect of aging is often sensory deterioration (Birren, Butler, Greenhouse, Sokoloff, and Yarrown, 1974). Sensory deprivation may lead to panic, delusions, and other aberrant mental behavior (Kaplan and Sadock, 1985; Schaie, 1986).A sensory loss experienced by older adults tends to cause these individuals to be cut off from their surroundings and from the personal contacts of a lifetime (Butler, 1963). This sense of being cut off often leads to depression (Butler and Lewis, 1982). The older adult faced with a sensory loss also has a tendency to think that little hope exists at their age that they will be able to develop effective coping strategies (Billings and Moos, 1981).
Depression is possibly the most serious of the psychological problems which are faced by older adults. Depression in older adults
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Approximate Word count = 3677
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)
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