Listening to Ilse Jacobson enthusiastically describe all the activities that fill up her life, one gets the feeling that this 81-year-old could use a few more hours in the day and many more years of living to continue the active life she prescribes for other older people.
Despite severe macular degeneration and a digestive condition that limits her dietary choices, the German-born Jacobson, who along with her parents fled Nazi Germany in 1939, has a “can-do” attitude. Never married and having lived by herself since 1980, Jacobson cooks all of her own meals, teaches German and Spanish, tends to her large collection of plants, uses her computer for e-mail and research and keeps busy with embroidery, knitting and sewing clothes for herself and others.
“You’ve got to keep going,” said the former nursery and kindergarten teacher who since 1991 has resided in a spacious one-bedroom apartment in Oak Park Arms, a retirement community in the western suburb. “You have to get out of your own environment and see what the world has to offer,” she said.
As people grow older, many find it difficult to adapt to change, some of which is inevitable. The death of loved ones, chronic health conditions, economic difficulties and moving from a home where they may have lived for many years to a new living environment–all of these changes can profoundly affect older adults and lead to debilitating depression if left undiagnosed and untreated.
Seniors face high risks
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 6 percent of Americans 65 and older, or approximately 2 million of the 34 million adults in this age group in 1998, had a diagnosable depressive illness that significantly interfered with ability to function.
Furthermore, older people are disproportionately more likely to commit suicide. Though making up only 13 percent of the U.S. population in 1997, people 65 and older accounted for 19 percent of all suicides. The highest rate reported was for white men 85 and older.
Because depression in older adults often occurs with other medical illnesses such as diabetes, cancer, stroke and heart disease, health-care professionals may conclude that a patient’s depression is a consequence of one of these illnesses and fail to diagnose and treat the depression. Or a physician may wrongly conclude that a patient’s depression is just a normal part of aging.
“A physical illness often goes along with a mental illness,” said Robyn Golden, social worker and clinical director for the Council for Jewish Elderly, a Chicago-based organization that provides resources and support to the elderly Jewish population in the Chicago area. “Very often a physical illness is treated and the depression is ignored. Also, most older adults have come from a generation where you don’t get help for an emotional illness, and many physicians do not recognize and treat depression in older adults. So you have a lot of older people with depression who are undiagnosed and undertreated.”
In order to adequately diagnose and treat older people suffering from a depressive illness, a mental health professional ideally should work in partnership with the primary physician, Golden said.
Individual psychotherapy–in an older person’s home as opposed to a medical setting–also is important when treating depression in older adults.
For older people who need more supervision, adult day-care services can help fill a void.
“We have the ability to grow and change no matter how old we are,” Golden said. “It is critical that older persons can feel understood and helped in dealing with the trials and tribulations of everyday life,” she said.
“Support groups are valuable for older people because the groups help older persons feel less isolated,” Golden said. “By talking with other people who have similar problems, older persons can problem-solve together and feel less alone.”
Maintaining contact is vital
In addition to teaching foreign-language classes to older people at the retirement community where she lives, Jacobson gives private language lessons to students, young and old, in her apartment. She maintains friendships with men and women of all ages, though most of her friends are younger.
“I have mostly younger friends because my generation dies out,” Jacobson said.
To promote socialization, the Chicago Department on Aging operates five senior centers throughout the city. The centers offer a wide array of programs, activities and services that enable older adults to maintain contact with others.
The Levy Center on West Lawrence Avenue, for example, sponsors about 300 senior citizen groups and clubs. Activities include holiday parties, trips and tours, recreational activities and driver-education classes. In addition, through the city’s Golden Diners program, hot lunches are served daily.
“We’ve found that many senior citizens in Chicago don’t have family or friends,” said Tanya Mitchell, public information officer with the city’s Department on Aging. “The senior centers provide a home-away-from-home environment with caring staff, hot meals and recreational activities on an ongoing basis.”
Volunteering to ease isolation
Older adults also can feel more connected to others by giving of their time. For Pilsen resident Marie Knych, volunteering at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Mt. Sinai Hospital has been a godsend, ever since her husband of 64 years died of cancer in 1979. The 85-year-old spends Tuesdays delivering flowers and doing administrative work at Northwestern Memorial and Thursdays volunteering at Mt. Sinai.
“When my husband died, I cried a lot,” Knych recalled. “You go somewhere and you feel like an odd person because everybody has somebody. There’s so much satisfaction when I am volunteering. I feel needed and useful, and that’s what keeps me going.”
Support groups for older adults
The Council for Jewish Elderly sponsors a variety of groups for older people and their families. Some groups are held at CJE headquarters at 3003 W. Touhy Ave. in Chicago; other groups meet at various locations on the North Side of Chicago and in the northern suburbs.
Groups include:
– A drop-in bereavement support group.
– A group for Holocaust survivors.
– A Parkinson’s disease support group.
– A support group for older people in which members discuss feelings related to stress and change.
– A support group for caregivers.
–K. S.
Contact information
Many suburbs offer programs and activities for older adults. Call your village hall for more information or request information from the following organizations:
– Administration on Aging, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; www.aoa.-dhhs.gov; 800-677-1116.
– Chicago Department on Aging, 30 North La Salle St., Suite 2320, Chicago, IL; 312-744-4016.
– Illinois Department on Aging; www.state.il.us/aging; 800-252-8966.
– Council for Jewish Elderly; www.cje.net; 773-508-1000.
–K.S.
