Student ID: NA091914836DHM
Module Title |
Research Project |
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Module Credit Value |
40 |
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Module Level |
6 |
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Module Code |
LSME605 |
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Academic Year |
2020-2021 / Term 3 |
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Lecturer |
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Issue Date |
15/3/2021 |
Submission Deadline |
31-05-2021 4PM |
Signature of Assessor |
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Title |
To investigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the mental health condition of elderly people.
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Introduction
Research Background
With the sudden advent of the COVID-19 pandemic situation, the whole world has been significantly devastated due to rising health issues and economic downturns. Particularly in the case of older adults, their mental health got severely worsened leading to potential cognitive decline, mortality and incident-based dementia (Herpen, 2022). These typical experiences had led to the significant poor mental health of adults, which, in turn, had affected the physical health conditions of the individual as well. The potential fluctuations in the mental health of adults had already started during the initial and later phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. Changes in the mental health status of elderly people, it is evident that they are going through a phase of depression, anxiety, and loneliness.
During the period of lockdown, older adults were found to be involving reduced referrals for potential mental health services. In addition to this, women were found to be most affected by this consistent lockdown period during the pandemic as compared to men of the same age (Tromans et al., 2020; Banks and Xu, 2020). As they are being forced to stay at home barriers for increasingly longer periods, their mental health seemed to deteriorate as the individuals are spending more time on unnecessary thinking. This is further subjected to the deterioration of health. With the advent of the pandemic, the world has been going through a recession period, which tested the economic and social aspects of life.
There has been a GDP drop of 9.7% in 2020, which was caused due to a significant rise in the COVID-19 cases (Harari, Keep, and Brien, 2021). It is because a typical loss in the national GDP will lead to socio-economic risks and poverty. As reported in by Giles (2021), the continuous lockdown measures affected older people negatively and they are found to be going through prolonged periods of stress and depression. Not only this, but elderly people have grown to become more fearful due to the social isolation period imposed by strict lockdown measures. Hence, the individuals have grown to become afraid due to the fear of contagion as well as isolation. Hence, the COVID-19 pandemic condition had given many reasons to adults to go to depression due to enhanced mental health conditions.
Figure 1: Percentage of older people testing positive for COVID-19
(Source:
Based on the age analysis, performed by (Yapp, Fuller, and Carbury, 2022), it was found that people above the age group of 70 were more prone to infection of the virus. It was proved through the representation of an increased logarithmic graph of getting infected, specifically after 26th February of this year. The lonely feeling within the aged group in the UK had been persistent with the rise of the pandemic situation as they are unable to gain any pleasure in the things that they had previously enjoyed (Abrahams, 2020). Moreover, England had become the country with the highest death rate in the UK with, 165,000 people, already died since the advent of the outbreak (BBC News, 2022). The news report also stated that this represented about 6.39% of the overall population. The increase in death rates had again seriously influenced the mental health of viruses. Furthermore, the pandemic had given rise to typical depressive mental health symptoms in older adults, which includes 12.5% before the pandemic and 22.6% after the pandemic by 2020 (Herpen, 2022). Older people had grown to become deeply afraid of the virus spreading and prefer to stay at home as the cases are rising and falling consistently.
Research Aim
The study would be to research the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of elderly people.
Research Objectives
The collection of objectives that would help in the establishment of the research is as follows:
To investigate the contributing factors, including financial, material and psychological factors that affected the mental health of elderly people during the pandemic.
To analyse the typical impact of the pandemic situation on the mental health of elderly adults
To draw practical conclusions to establish different recommendations to support the ageing group's mental problems due to Covid-19.
Research Questions
The collection of objectives that would help in the establishment of the research are as follows:
What are the contributing factors that include financial, material, and psychological factors that influence the mental health of aged people during the pandemic situation?
How the Covid-19 pandemic had been influencing the mental health of elderly adults?
What are the strategic recommendations that can support the mental health problems, in effect to the Covid-19 pandemic, of the ageing group?
Rationale
Previous studies that were conducted on this research topic were found to have a direct link with the mental health conditions of the general population. Before Covid-19, other pandemic or epidemic situations had risen in the world, which includes SARS and Ebola. Not only are this but there some researchers, which was particularly been conducted o this research topic only. The most noticeable mental health factors include depression, isolation, and anxiety. Though life after the pandemic is expected to be normal, there are high chances that older people gain serious health conditions, which become permanent for them. It is because aged individuals are much more resilient and own a sense of self-sufficiency, leading them to face unique challenges (Abrahams, 2020).
The pandemic has become a significant issue as it leads to the health deterioration of older people, leading them to become more dependent on health care services. It is because the older people had been undergoing a steeper decline in their health problems during the pandemic situation. Additionally, another significant issue that is faced by elderly people during the lockdown period includes dementia. From the obtained statistical data, it has been stated that about 35% of the elderly are undergoing dementia problems (Abrahams, 2020). As these challenges are persisting, researchers are trying to interpret the reasons behind their occurrence. Thus, through this research, the typical problems faced by elderly people regarding their mental health conditions during the pandemic situation will be interpreted.
Significance of the research
Hence, through this study, the different types of mental problems that old aged people had been consistently facing after the advent of the pandemic situation can be estimated. Along with this, the research will also be useful for the identification of the typical contributing factors that influences the mental health problem of older people in the UK. From the overall research analysis, potential recommendations can also be suggested for positively enhancing the mental health condition of elderly people. Through effective implication of the research, is it will also help in increasing the knowledge set, regarding the typical contributing factors that further influence the negative mental health conditions of elderly people. The factors include material, psychological, and financial. As the study will be surveying elderly people, who are between the age group of 50 to 70, the research can potentially gain highlights on what are the exact issues that the firm is facing during the time of the pandemic. Moreover, the conducted review of literature will benefit the researcher in gaining a core understanding of how to tackle the issues.
Structure of the report
Figure 2: Structure of the report
(Source: Created by the Learner)
Reference List
Abrahams, C. (2021) The impact of COVID-19 to date on older people’s mental and physical health. Available at: https://www.ageuk.org.uk/globalassets/age-uk/documents/reports-and-publications/reports-and-briefings/health--wellbeing/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-older-people_age-uk.pdf (Accessed: 2 April 2022).
Banks, J. and Xu, X. (2020) ‘The mental health effects of the first two months of lockdown during the COVID?19 pandemic in the UK’, Fiscal Studies, 41(3), pp.685-708.
BBC News (2022) Covid-19 in the UK: How many coronavirus cases are there in my area?. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-51768274 (Accessed: 2 April 2022).
Harari, D., Keep, M. and Brien, P. (2021) Coronavirus: Economic impact. Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-8866/ (Accessed: 2 April, 2022).
Herpen, R. (2022) Mental health worsened in UK older adults as COVID-19 pandemic continued. Available at: https://www.healio.com/news/psychiatry/20220105/mental-health-worsened-in-uk-older-adults-as-covid19-pandemic-continued (Accessed: 2 April, 2022).
Tromans, S., Chester, V., Harrison, H., Pankhania, P., Booth, H. and Chakraborty, N. (2020) ‘Patterns of use of secondary mental health services before and during COVID-19 lockdown: observational study’, BJPsych Open, 6(6).
Yapp, R., Fuller, E. and Carbury, R. (2022) Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey, UK: 25 March 2022. Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/25march2022#age-analysis-of-the-percentage-of-people-who-had-covid-19 (Accessed: 2 April 2022).
