PRESENTATION ON COUNSELING AGED POPULATION

Counseling aged population presentation notes

1. COUNSELING AGED
POPULATION
Presented By
V M Salima Habeeb

2. The Association for Adult Development
and Aging (AADA) is the division within
the American Counseling Association
(ACA) that particularly focuses on
chronological life-span growth after
adolescence, but it is concerned
ultimately with the entire life span.

3. It focuses on theorists such as Jean Piaget,
Lawrence Kohlberg, Erik Erikson, Carol
Gilligan, and Nancy Schlossberg who have
addressed issues associated with
developmental stages from infancy to old age.

Erikson’s stages and their challenges are
probably the most well known.

4. The aged are defined here as persons over age 65.
Since 1935 and the passage of the Social Security
Act, age 65 has been seen as the beginning of old
age or late adulthood.

Today, the average life expectancy of a baby born
in the United States is 78.8 years, with women’s
life expectancy at 81.2 years and men’s at 76.4
years (Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics,
2015).

5. Reasons for the remarkable growth in the older
population include the high birthrate during the
20th century, immigration policies that favored
the admittance of persons who are now growing
older, improved health care, better nutrition, and
the reduction of infectious diseases.

Therefore, counselor attention needs to focus on
this group, especially with the baby boomer
generation beginning to fill up this age range

6. There are a number of myths and
misconceptions about aging, many of
which are negative. Most center around
loss and dysfunctionality.

However, the vast majority of
individuals who reach older adulthood
are active and well functioning.
For instance, in the field of counseling
Carl Rogers published more books
after age 65 than he did before then.

7. Salisbury (1975) raised counselor awareness about
counseling older adults by respectively noting a
lack of articles on this population in the
counseling literature and a dearth of counselor
education programs offering an elective course on
the aged and their special needs.

8. By the mid-1980s, the situation had changed.

Based on a national survey, Myers (1983) reported
that 36% of all counseling programs offered one or
more courses on working with older people. That
percentage has continued to increase along with
new studies on the aged.

Now there are standards for work- ing with
geriatric populations and counseling with this age
group has increased.

9. Case studies have also increased awareness
of the common issues faced by older adults
today so that they do not appear to be
extraordinary to counselors who work with
members of this population group.

10. Several prominent theories of aging, many of them
multidimensional, have been proposed.

For instance, Schaie and Willis (2016) view aging
from a biological, psychological, and social
perspective, recognizing that the multidimensional
process may be uneven.

Aging is a natural part of development. People have
specific tasks to accomplish as they grow older.
Old Age
For example, Erikson views middle and late
adulthood as a time when the individual must
develop a sense of generativity and ego integrity or
become stagnant and despairing.

11. Neugarten (1978), stressing development, sees
three major periods of older adulthood.

The young-old are those between ages 65 and 75.
They are still active physically, mentally, and
socially, whether they are retired or not.

The old are individuals beyond age 75 whose
physical activity is far more limited.

Finally, there are those classified as the old-old, 85
years and older who are in decline.

The effects of deterioration are usually more
apparent in the old-old popula- tion, although
patterns of aging are clearly unique.

12. The Third Phase of Life: Older Adulthood
Despite an increased understanding of aging and
an ever-growing number of older adults, those in
this category of life have to deal with age-based
expectations and prejudices.
These negative attitudes and stereotypes, which
are known as ageism, prevent intimate
encounters with people in different age groups
and sometimes lead to outright discrimination.

Unfortunately, individuals who are growing
older frequently deny and dread the process, a
phenomenon that Friedan (1994) calls “the age
mystique.”

13. Older adults must deal with a wide variety of
complex issues in their transition from midlife to
“senior citizen” status, including changes in physical
abilities, social roles, relationships, and even
residential relocation.

Many of these changes have the potential to spark an
identity crisis within the person.
The developmental demands of older adults are
probably second only to those of young children.
Needs of Old-age

14. According to Havighurst (1959), older adults
must learn to cope successfully with

(a) the death of friends and spouses,
(b) reduced physical vigor,
(c) retirement and the reduction of income,
(d) more leisure time and the process of making
new friends,
(e) the development of new social roles,
(f) dealing with grown children, and
(g) changing living arrangements or making
satisfactory ones.

15. Some of the required changes associated
with aging are gradual, such as the loss of
physical strength. Others are abrupt, such
as death.

16. Overall, aging is a time of both “positive and
negative transitions and transformations”.

Positive transitions for older adults involve a
gain for the individual, such as becoming a
grandparent or receiving a discount on
purchases and for cultural events such as
musical performances or movies.

Transitions that involve a high level of stress
are those connected with major loss, such as
the death of a spouse, the loss of a job, or the
contraction of a major illness.

17. In these situations, many older adults struggle
because they lack a peer support group through
which to voice their grief and work through
emotions.

Major problems of the aged include loneliness,
physical illness, retirement, idleness, bereavement,
and abuse.

In addition, members of this group suffer more
depression, anxiety, and psychosis as they grow
older.

Other mental health considerations such as
depression, dementia, and suicide are also of
concern.

18. Domestic elder abuse—“any form of
maltreatment by someone who has a special
relationship with the elderly,” including neglect
is problematic as well.

Among the most common forms of
maltreatment for older adults are physical
abuse, psychological abuse, financial
exploitation, and violation of rights, including
personal liberty, free speech, and privacy.

In addition, alcohol abuse is a prevalent but
often undiagnosed disorder in older adults.

19. Counseling aged population
a.
b.
c.
d.
Not understanding older adults
Investment syndrome (feeling that it is better
to work with younger persons who will
contribute more to society in the long run)
Irrational fear of aging
Problems older adults have, such as
depression, are attributed to old age and not
seen as a part of life
Reasons Counselors Give for Not Working
with Older Adults

20. One broad and important approach to working
successfully with the aged is to treat them as adults.

Late adulthood is a unique life stage and involves
continuous growth.

When counselors display basic counseling skills such
as reflecting feelings, paraphrasing content,
identifying patterns, asking open-ended questions,
validating feelings and thoughts, and gently
confronting inconsistencies, older adults feel free to
explore difficulties or adjustment issues and are
likely to respond appropriately

21. Xu (2010) advocates for incorporating
logotherapy principles into working with
older adults.

Present models of successful aging, and the
interventions they encourage, tend to focus
on maintaining physical and cognitive
functioning and continuing engagement in
active living.

22. Xu notes, however, that such models neglect what
Frankl (1962) identified as the “noetic,” or
spiritual, dimension of human existence.

A more holistic model of aging, the author
concludes, attends to the spiritual tasks and the
Will to Meaning of older individuals.

It assists them in integrating and transcending
their lived experience and making meaning in late
life.

23. Another strategy for promoting change in the
aged is to modify the attitudes of people within
the systems in which they live.

Many societal attitudes negatively influence older
people’s attitudes about themselves.

Often, older adults act old because their
environments encourage and support such
behavior.

24. Short-term cognitive behavior therapy has been
used successfully with some older adults in
increasing rational thinking and decreasing
depression
Therefore, counselors must become educators and
advocates for change in societal attitudes if
destructive age restrictions and stereotypes are to be
overcome.

“We need to develop a society that encourages
people to stop acting their age and start being
themselves”.

25. a.
b.
c.
The following groups are among the most popular
for adults age 65 and older.

Reality-oriented groups, which help orient
confused group members to their surroundings

Remotivation therapy groups, which are aimed
at helping older clients become more invested in
the present and the future

Reminiscing groups, which conduct life reviews
focused on resolving past issues in order to help
members become more personally integrated
and find meaning in the present

26. THANK YOU!!!