The pandemic has had a detrimental effect on the mental health of many Quebecers, but even more so among seniors.
Isolation remains the number one enemy. Also, many elderly people also feel that they are wasting precious years of their life.
“I think we have all been affected, we are all a little tired, we have pandemic fatigue, but for the elderly, it was even more difficult, for several reasons”, believes the geriatrician, David Lussier.
“What I’ve heard often from older people is that they feel like they’ve been robbed of time. Someone who is 40 years old, he loses two years of his life where he cannot do what he wants, he will not remember it much, it will not be memorable. “
For psychologist Caroline Ménard, we must keep an eye out for signs of psychological distress in the elderly.
“We ask them sometimes: are you depressed? They say: “no, no, no, but my stomach hurts, my back hurts”. So it manifests itself more often through the body, ”she explains.
His team has launched a project to improve the mental health of elderly people in residential care.
In particular, she wants to better equip workers on the floor so that they can detect signs of depression or anxiety.
Ms. Ménard’s team also hopes to offer more psychological help.
“Unfortunately, there are few psychologists in CHSLDs in Quebec. There is a little bit of it, but there is not much. It’s really something that’s missing. ”
See the rest of our report in the video above.
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