An Article on the Elderly, an even more secret affliction?
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=1147472006
It is nice to finally see an article dedicated to talking about self-injury in people that aren’t teenagers or in their twenties. After the repetitiveness of recent statistic laden, young person focused articles in the news, this article feels, finally, like something new.
Of course, self-harm among older people is not new. LifeSIGNS has long been aware that self-injury is not limited to any specific group of people, whether that’s old or young, male or female or any other kind of identifying factor. We hope that our website, message board and other services are accessible to those older people as other support available is mostly targeted at the young.
My fear is that at a time when self-injury has become something no longer unknown, when public attention is being drawn to it and the right kinds of questions are being asked, the topic has been swamped with news and issues about the “new teenage epidemic”. With all the focus on the findings of the National Inquiry and other studies focusing on younger people, I feel that there is a great risk of pushing the self-harm of older people further into the realm of taboo. I hope that there will be many more articles or follow up work in this area.
2 Comments
Kaye
August 30, 2006It was so refreshing to read this article; the stigma of SH in younger persons is slowly been reduced, however it is very much behind in the older generation. Elderly people generally have a wide range of complex problems and needs, not only with the deterioration of physical health, but also huge life changes, such as death of a partner, social isolation, difficulty in carrying out meaningful tasks, etc…. They face a wide range of emotional problems, which ultimately can lead to self harming behaviour. I have found that other forms of self harm are highly prominent within older people. Self neglect is so common, ranging from not maintaining personal hygienge, or a hygienic environment, not eating a healthy balanced diet, not taking medication, not maintaining healthly sitting/lying positions… the list really does go on. It needs to be accepted that this is not simply caused by old age, and it cannot be changed… But this is caused by the deep emotional pain, the low self esteem and self value… All things that can be worked on and improved.
Kirsty
August 30, 2006This to me seemed like a really good article, and hopefully the first of others and possibly even research into how common self-harming behaviour is among older people.
Hopefully this will also help to stop older people from feeling alienated and alone.