EARLY symptoms of behaviour such as
depression in the elderly are often ignored by senior citizens over 65 years
old as they are dismissed and considered as "normal behaviour" that
requires no need for medical consultation.
According
to Geriatric Specialist at Raja Isteri Pengiran Anak Saleha (RIPAS) Hospital Dr
Ang Sik Kim in an interview with The Brunei Times, said that these symptoms
need immediate attention and that this could be very "atypical"
syndrome in old age.
He said
that depression was not only limited to the elderly feeling sad, but they also
end up losing sleep, not eating and do not have a general healthy well-being of
doing their daily routines.
Asked
where the depression stems from, he said that the answer could be
multifactoral.
"Sometimes
it could be a personal issue, they (the elderly) might have a feeling of losing
independence, family issues and not be as active as they used to be," he
said.
"That
is why in caring for the elderly, you must focus on one thing and that is to think
outside the box and intervene from different directions."
Depression
is not the only factor that could disrupt the health being of an elderly, said
Dr Ang, as he named another few factors common in the Bruneian elder.
"In
Brunei, some senior citizens can be sensitive and private and don't want to
share information with the physician,"he said.
Another
factor was memory loss, said that specialist, which could indicate a form of
some sort of dementia.
Incontinence
was also another issue suffered by some elderly patients.
"Being
incontinent is not being able to control the process of urination, and this
itself can sometimes be alarming because this might lead to them wanting to
stay at home all the time and not come out of the house,"he said.
Falls,
were also another factor that could be the cause of an elderly's deteriorating
health, as they incur a loss of independence.
"Globally
the ageing population is increasing and our very own population is starting to
grow old and the life expectancy is increasing, so I think as we live longer
potential diseases maybe detected," he said.
What
causes cancer is still a mystery at this stage, he said, adding that sometimes
you know what the causes for cancer are, whether they are hereditary or not.
"But
we do know that there are some risk factors like smoking and leading an
unhealthy lifestyle can contribute to it (cancer)."
Obesity
was associated with cancer, but not a cause, causing a lot of malignancy in
mostly females, the doctor explained.
"I
think issues such as obesity can be prevented and are modifiable risk factors,
but if a person has a family history of cancer, you can't really do much about
that," said Dr Ang.
The
ministry will continue with their activities that are centred around
encouraging the elderly to adopt healthy eating habis, increase physical
exercise and generally leading a healthy life.
"Because
non-communicable diseases are preventable and can be avoided," he said.
Asked
what other activities the ministry had plans for elderly care for the rest of
the year, he said that he hoped the launch of World Health Day 2012 would
become a platform for all agencies to see what can be done for the care of the
elderly.
HANA
ROSLAN
The
Brunei Times
No comments:
Post a Comment