Mental Health Overview

Edith stopped off at her dad’s condo, and they chatted about her day. For several weeks, she had been updating him about a video she was making for a company board meeting. That morning was the big presentation and it went well. She was thrilled to share her good news with her supportive father.

Just a few minutes after their conversation, “Edith’s” dad asked her something that created a pit in the bottom of her stomach. He asked how her day was, specifically if anything interesting had happened at work. That forgetfulness was a sign that “Edith” had been dreading. It meant that her beloved father’s Parkinson’s disease was progressing to include dementia, a symptom that his doctors had warned her could materialize.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, between 15 and 25 percent of adults 65 and older have a mental illness. So it’s important to understand the key issues of mental health and the way they affect our elders. Knowledge is definitely power when it comes to being the caregiver of an elderly loved one.

“Mental illness is not a normal part of aging,” says Veronica Poklemba, clinical nurse specialist at Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. “It’s important to understand what the different illnesses are, if they can be treated and if they can be prevented or slowed down.”

Memory loss is a crucial mental health issue for elders. However, it doesn’t always signal a major problem. We all misplace things now and again, and it’s not cause for concern. For instance, if your teenager forgets his math homework, he doesn’t automatically ask, “Uh oh, do I have Alzheimer’s disease?” Unfortunately, it’s a different story when someone in her 60s forgets where her car keys are. Even if it’s “just one of those things,” the question can come to mind.

Memory expert, Majid Fotuhi, MD, from Northwest Hospital Center and Sinai Hospital says that about 90 percent of the elders who think they have dementia or Alzheimer’s disease do not. He emphasizes that other factors can cause memory troubles, such as stress, depression and anxiety.

Dr. Fotuhi says that dementia is a group of symptoms associated with different brain disorders that affects both memory and cognition at the same time. People who have dementia can lose their memory, their ability to reason and the skills to manage their emotions. These can affect everything from eating to taking care of hygiene to having outbursts of anger. Unfortunately, dementia gets worse over time.

A frequently asked mental health question is the difference between dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease actually is a form of dementia. It is a progressive brain disease that destroys brain cells and causes memory problems that affect every aspect of life. Alzheimer’s gets worse over time and it is fatal.

Typical warning signs of Alzheimer’s disease are that people forget the basics of how to live life. These can include getting lost going to places that they’ve been to many times before, having difficulty finding the right words, becoming very confused over the simplest tasks or ideas, and losing items.

One example involves a Pennsylvania man’s family who couldn’t find his misplaced false teeth. The missing dentures were finally found in the man’s freezer several months their disappearance, by the elderly man’s granddaughter, who was looking for something else.