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Hong Kong, the city that never sleeps, is known for being one of the most stressful cities in the world. A recent survey shows that many elderly people in Hong Kong lead a gloomy life and even have suicidal thoughts!
The elderly are people who contributed much to our society when they were young. Yet as they grow older and older, their health would start to deteriorate. This causes them to be unable to perform actions as easily as they once did. This would make them feel themselves useless, thus even leading to depression, which is one of the main reasons why the elderly have suicidal thoughts.
This is not difficult to imagine. To wake up one day and find that even getting up to get a glass of water is immensely hard and this would dampen and bruise anyone’s pride. Even though our technology today can allow people to have a long life, this won’t only be able to stop the body from deteriorating. Sure, we may be able to stay alive longer for a certain amount of time, but people still have to face the bad side of aging. So without proper emotional and mental support, the elderly will feel that they are worthless and are a hindrance to society.
Another reason why the elderly in Hong Kong lead a depressed life is they lack attention and care from others. Hong Kong people focus a lot of their time and attention on either their work or studies; many of them often neglect those around them, especially the elderly. Without love and care, the elderly would feel alone and deserted, and will start thinking of their wonderful and exciting past, like how great things used to be when they were able to move around. This intensifies their pain and may ultimately lead to elderly suicide.
In fact, without the efforts of the older generation, Hong Kong would not have been able to flourish into a sparkling city. Some possible measures could definitely be carried out to turn this heart-breaking situation around. Community outreach, education for family members and education for the public are the ways out.
What is community outreach? Apparently, a significant portion of elderly people like those who are house-bound and physically unable still slips through the net of the primary health care. It is also not easy to expect a Chinese elderly person to express his or her personal feelings, trust, respect and a good relationship must be first established before an elderly person can open up and freely express any distress he may experience. So volunteers could visit every elderly client at least twice a month and back up with frequent phone calls. This way, the elderly will feel that they are cared about both physically and psychologically, with the professional help. Hopefully, their gloomy outlook to life can soon take a u-turn.
Education for family members is also important. Elderly people usually give signals, whether explicit or not, to their family members about feeling valueless and wanting to end their lives. So, it is important for the family members to not ignore these signals and to seek immediate professional help whenever necessary. Also, a more integrated program could be put into place to respond to the needs of the families so that the lives of the family members won’t be greatly disrupted. The government could allocate more resources to this.
Last, but not least, it is important to educate the public the prevalence of psychiatric illness among the elderly. This will then allow those who come into contact with the elderly to become aware of the signs and symptoms of depression and to alert their family members or social workers. This can help the elderly get help as soon as possible to get them out of their sea of depression.
With the above three ways, let us hope that the elderly in our Hong Kong society may be able to feel that they are loved and be able to smile brightly once more. Let us proudly say that Hong Kong, the city that never sleeps, is not only a place for the young ones, but also the old generation.