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Engaging the elderly: Why Mental Wellness is essential for Senior Citizens

Old age should be the time for celebration of a life well lived. It could be a time of joy and even discovery with grandchildren and family.

By Newsd
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Engaging the elderly: Why Mental Wellness is essential for Senior Citizens

By Tamojit Dutta and Prateep Sen

Mrs Sheila Dutta, 69, lives in a sprawling old mansion in Kolkata. It’s the place she has called home for 35 years. After losing her husband, she now lives alone with her many ailments. Both her wonderful children stay far from Kolkata, and as she ages, Mrs Dutta is spending more time on her own in her sprawling old mansion.

Mrs Dutta is the face of a new India – an India which is ageing alone, probably comfortably, but with little engagement with the outside world. This is an India which is often forgotten as they stay behind closed doors and feel neglected by a digitized economy driven by much younger people.

Old age should be the time for celebration of a life well lived. It could be a time of joy and even discovery with grandchildren and family. Yet, for many in India, old age results in loss of mobility, independence and confidence. Such seniors soon start feeling isolated – setting off a lethal cycle of ill health and depression.

Ageing affects Mental Health

Loss of motor functions is common in old age. Reading becomes difficult due to poor eyesight and walking often becomes a chore due to arthritis. All the things we loved when we were young, we find harder as we get older.

There are other challenges too. Lack of occupation often leads to declining self-worth. The elderly feel they are not useful to their own family or valued by the wider world outside. They start isolating themselves from friends and family. Cognitive abilities start declining considerably due to social isolation and loss of activity – it is then a slippery slope, difficult to extricate oneself from.

Sitting alone at home and brooding is not an attractive outcome at any age. It is especially dangerous in retirement. Without social interaction and mental engagement, the elderly are especially exposed to dementia, depression and decline. Studies have repeatedly shown that dementia sets in early in case of lonely elders.

But what are the solutions? How do we engage more with the elderly and make them feel wanted in a society that would benefit enormously from their life experiences and skills?

Senior Social Clubs help in fighting loneliness

Multiple studies have shown that individuals who continuously challenge themselves by joining in group activities and learning new skills are best able to fight loneliness. While it is true that our body and brain both slacken with age, we can actively slow these declines. New research shows that brain cells can grow again, and new brain connections or synapses can be formed.

Human beings are social creatures – and irrespective of age – new learning opportunities continually improve our mental health. We believe that Social Clubs for the elderly are a fantastic way of engaging senior citizens in a world of wondrous activity and immense learning.

Travel & “adda” through Senior Clubs

Travelling helps balance our physical, emotional and spiritual health. Why should it be any different in older age? Senior citizens are keen and enthusiastic to discover new places or journey back to old memories.

What they often lack is a group to travel with or senior friendly facilities to live. They may also have specific needs or constraints (e.g. diabetic food) that inhibit their ability to fully participate in normal tours targeting the mass market.

A great way of making travelling easier for the elderly is to promote like-minded people at Senior Clubs touring together. There are several such clubs now in India helping seniors travel both nationally and internationally, sometimes even with medical support available on the trip. These travel plans are usually mobility and language friendly. They also follow a more relaxed pace of touring to allow for a better experience for the elderly.

Through these clubs, interested senior citizens can join in many activities throughout the year. They can enjoy meeting new and old friends in cafes, events or even someone’s house. They attend multiple “chai-addas” in a year and fully participate in age-appropriate workshops, theatre shows, senior tours, pottery and signing classes. The idea is for the elderly to meet in a safe place with others of similar age, whose company they really enjoy. This increases involvement and interaction among a vulnerable demographic who still has so much to offer and share.

Senior Clubs will change the way people like Mrs Dutta age in the future. It is one of many changes that seniors deserve – for a better, more fulfilling and certainly more active life.


(Tamojit Dutta and Prateep Sen are Co-CEOs of TriBeCa Care, one of India’s largest specialist elder-care platforms that recently launched a senior club called Club TriBeCa)

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