Nurses and mental health counselors are lifelines for seniors
The healthcare sector is a vital resource for many seniors and helps keep them in great shape as they age. Multiple roles are instrumental with this in mind – mental health counselors and nurses being two, which merit further attention.
These health professionals provide essential support to seniors across the country and help them enjoy life to the fullest. This is especially true when it comes to mental health, as this is an increasingly serious issue for older people to deal with.
Mental health a key issue for seniors in modern society
When you consider the statistics around mental health and seniors, the need for expert assistance in this area for older people is evident. It is reported that around 20% of people aged 55 or over suffer from some mental health issue, and this means there is a real need for trained mental health practitioners to help this demographic deal with conditions such as anxiety.
But how do you get into this sector and pick up the skills needed to offer the best support to older people who might be experiencing mental health problems?
How do you become a mental health counselor to help seniors?
If you like the thought of providing a vital lifeline for seniors regarding their mental health, counseling could be the ideal career for you to follow.
The best way to build a career as a mental health counselor is to partake in high-quality academic courses focused on mental health counseling, such as the Online Master’s Degree in Mental Health Counseling at St Bonaventure University. This type of study will ensure you receive the qualifications needed to work in the sector, and equip you with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed when working with patients.
Mental health counselors as lifelines for older people
Although the above shows how to get into working as a mental health counselor and offer invaluable support to older clients, you may wonder how this role is a real lifeline to seniors. As the below shows, there are, in fact, many ways this can be seen in the real world.
Connection with the outside world
For seniors who have no partner, no family, and no friends to interact with, the very act of attending counseling sessions can benefit their mental health. This is because mental health counselors give them someone to talk to and share their thoughts, fears, and feelings with. Counselors in this niche can also form a professional bond with regular clients, which can help the client feel less alone.
When you think that this may be the only form of regular human contact they might have, then it is easy to understand how counselors in mental health can offer a vital lifeline for people in this situation.
Assessment and treatment of mental health problems
Professionals in this field also provide critical support for seniors in terms of assessing the specific mental health issues they may be dealing with and helping them find ways to cope with them. This may, for example, involve drawing up a treatment plan to help them deal with their mental health issues.
It may also mean counselors referring clients to relevant health professionals if medication might be required to manage the condition. This kind of support is crucial for seniors who are grappling with mental health issues and means they do not have to do so alone. In addition, it means that senior clients can enjoy the remaining years of their lives and ensure they are not a danger to others in society.
Signposting to other services or groups who can help
As with many different roles within the broader healthcare field, mental health counselors often work alongside other professionals in multiple sectors to offer the best support. This can be a real bonus for older patients dealing with problems needing external help.
For example, an elderly client might be suffering from depression, which is being caused by being made homeless recently. Counselors can help here by signposting them to relevant social work services to help them find accommodation and hopefully improve their feelings. This offers a real lifeline for the client to improve their situation – one they might not otherwise have had.
Mental health counselors can also signpost senior clients to specific groups they know, which can help improve their state of mind. This can be another valuable lifeline to the accurate world and significantly boost how clients deal with their specific issues. For example, An older person struggling with recently retiring could be directed to a group the counselor knows about, which helps bring together those in the same boat.
Nurses key for helping seniors in later life
As the above shows, mental health counselors support senior clients in several ways. This is also true across healthcare, and various other roles fulfill the same task. Nurses are one example that stands out and is one part of the health sector that many older patients rely on for support.
What role do nurses play as a valuable lifeline for seniors?
There is no doubt that nursing is one of the most important roles in the health industry and one that provides crucial care to patients across the spectrum. Seniors are certainly one demographic that nurses cater to, and this means they can act as a real lifeline for these patients.
Someone to talk to for older patients
This is often one of the most important duties nurses fulfil when it comes to being a source of support for seniors. Many older people may have lost their partner and could be facing life on their own. This can leave older people struggling to come to terms with life alone.
This situation can also be made worse if the senior in question has also seen their closest friends pass on and has no close family to lean on. This can leave them without a support network to talk their troubles over with, share their feelings with, or simply have a chat with.
Nurses can give senior patients in this situation someone they can trust to talk to and share their feelings with. By delivering this kind of support during appointments, qualified nursing staff can stop older patients feeling isolated.
Nurses can also be a good source of comfort for seniors who are living with a partner that has a chronic or difficult-to-manage health condition. This is because they can offer advice on how best to deal with the situation and give them a safe space to express how they are coping. If someone is living with a partner who has dementia, for example, nurses can not only talk to them about it in a caring way but can also offer expert tips on how best to navigate daily life.
Home visits for treatment
Many seniors will naturally struggle with mobility as they grow older and will find it harder to get about. This could be due to the impact of ageing on joints and bones or the effects of advancing years on balance. In addition, conditions such as arthritis may make it tough for seniors to get about as they once did.
Nurses can therefore offer essential, direct support to older patients by carrying out home visits where needed. This could mean visiting the home of an older patient who cannot travel to get the care they need from a clinic, hospital, or community center. By offering this service, nurses ensure that seniors can access high-quality healthcare and get the latest treatments to stay healthy. This is very important for older people in this position, who would be left behind without the lifeline that home visits provide.
Managing ongoing conditions
Nursing professionals offer direct support to seniors in various ways, and managing ongoing conditions is one perfect example to note. This becomes even more crucial when you consider that older patients are more likely to develop health conditions they need to manage daily because of age.
A senior patient who has not followed the healthiest diet over time, for example, may develop diabetes and need help managing this as they move forward. Nurses play a key role in cases like this, as they can advise seniors on the best way to manage their specific condition without it impacting them.
In this way, qualified nurses can give seniors the latest and most trusted advice on managing their conditions. All of this can be a real lifeline for older people who may be worrying about managing their recently developed health condition or needing to speak with a medical professional about how best to tackle it.
Vaccination programs
Some regularly seen illnesses can impact seniors negatively. An excellent example is the many cases of flu, which crop up globally each winter. Nurses can provide a lifeline to older patients by helping to run vaccination programs for conditions like this, which affect them most.
This could be anything from speaking with older patients to let them know about a vaccination program, putting up posters about it in their workplace, and getting involved with vaccination sessions. By doing this, nursing professionals help seniors to stay healthy and provide a vital link to any vaccination sessions which are happening.
Nutrition and healthy living
In addition to providing valuable support for seniors who are managing an ongoing health condition, nurses can be a real lifeline to those looking to live healthier. This is a major part of the nursing role in many settings, as it helps prevent any issues before they become a problem. If an older patient currently smokes, for example, they may heed the advice given by their nurse on why it is bad for their health, what conditions it could lead to, and how best to quit.
Professional nurses can also offer advice about healthy eating, nutrition, and a proper diet to seniors looking to live healthier. This is something older patients can benefit from, as it can help improve their immune system to fight illnesses and strengthen bones that age may otherwise weaken. From drinking enough water daily to eating a diet rich in fruit and vegetables, the information nurses can pass on to older patients in this area is key to following a healthy lifestyle.
The impact of mental health counselors and nurses on seniors
The above shows some essential ways mental health counselors and nurses provide invaluable lifelines for seniors in society. But what is the overall impact on the well-being of older people?
In simple terms, the overall effect is a very positive one that helps seniors enjoy life more and live longer. Nurses and counselors’ connection to the outside world means that seniors feel happy and avoid conditions like depression. Vaccination programs that nurses can provide access to are key for allowing seniors to remain healthy, and they deliver vital treatment during home visits and give advice about living a healthier lifestyle.
When you factor in the expert help with mental health problems counselors offer and how they can help signpost clients to people who can help with underlying issues, it is clear that the impact is universally positive for senior health.
Holistic support systems for seniors
The last key point to touch on in this article is holistic support systems and examples of how professionals in both fields use them to improve the quality of life for seniors.
Holistic healthcare support refers to the systems put in place that help to treat the whole individual. This means these systems care for patients’ physical, mental, and emotional well-being rather than just focusing on these areas in isolation. This is thought to be beneficial to patients, as various factors from each region can often combine to make people ill. Treating the patients as a whole can, therefore, produce better results.
Holistic support systems in health are especially useful for elderly people, who can often have physical symptoms brought on by mental health problems and vice versa. But what are some good examples of these systems which both nurses and mental health counselors create for seniors?
One example to begin with could be a mental health counselor who sees an older client that is suffering from mania, psychosis, or anti-social behavior. As well as looking at the case from a mental health aspect to assess and diagnose what could be causing these behaviors, they may also take a holistic approach and create a wider support network to help. This could mean the counselor’s putting them in touch with nurse practitioners who might be able to prescribe medication to help with their problems and recommending a local mindfulness group to help ease their negative emotions.
If a nurse sees an older patient complaining of low energy levels, they may look at the physical side of things first and see if that is the cause of the problem. They may also refer the patient to a mental health professional, though, if issues like OCD might be mentally wearing the patient out and causing a lack of energy. The nurse may also suggest holistic therapies to help tackle the patient’s anxious nature and boost their energy levels through alternative exercises such as meditation and yoga.
Mental health counselors and nurses key for seniors’ health
There is little doubt that both mental health counselors and nurses are crucial for better health in seniors. As we have seen, both provide real support and a lifeline for older people in society. When they also create holistic support systems to achieve this, both health professions work in an integrated manner to help boost seniors’ health.
