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Posted: January 23rd, 2024

Discuss the importance of resiliency for helping elderly maintain self-esteem and a healthy self-image

Discuss the importance of resiliency for helping elderly maintain self-esteem and a healthy self-image
Maintaining Resiliency in the Elderly: The Key to Self-Esteem and a Healthy Self-Image

Introduction

As human beings advance into their later years, they face increasing challenges to their health, independence, and overall well-being. However, maintaining resiliency—the ability to adapt and bounce back in the face of adversity—can help the elderly preserve their self-esteem and self-image even in difficult times. This paper will discuss the importance of building resilience for seniors and provide evidence-based recommendations for how individuals and communities can promote resilience among older adult populations.

The Impact of Aging on Self-Perception

Aging brings many changes in one’s status and abilities that can negatively impact self-esteem and self-concept if not met with resilience. Retirement from longtime careers, loss of loved ones, declining health and independence—these and other losses associated with aging can affect how older adults view themselves and diminish their confidence (Fullen, 2018). In Western cultures that tend to value productivity and youth, ageist stereotypes can also seep into the elderly individual’s self-perception, further damaging their self-image (Nelson, 2016).

However, cultivating resilience allows seniors to adapt to age-related changes and challenges in their identity and self-worth. Asolder adults rely on internal coping strategies and external support systems, they reinforce positive self-appraisals rather than negative age stereotypes (Harris & Dollinger, 2017). In essence, resilience enables the elderly to hold onto an image of themselves as capable, valued members of society regardless of physical or social changes.

Promoting Resilience in Older Adulthood

Resilience originates from both internal assets—such as optimism, strong self-esteem, and motivation—and external resources, including social support and access to health services. For older adults, acquiring and strengthening various psychological, social, and environmental protective factors can build critical resilience reserves over time (Lui et al., 2020).

On the individual level, seniors can boost resilience through evidence-based strategies such as:

Maintaining perspective and not catastrophizing or overgeneralizing failures or setbacks (Lee et al., 2019)
Practicing self-care techniques like meditation, journaling, or faith-based rituals to manage stress (Manning, 2018)
Learning new skills for autonomy, growth, and purpose (Lamond et al., 2009)
Leveraging strengths and abilities cultivated over a lifetime (Hayman et al., 2017)
Meanwhile, communities play a key role in establishing robust social networks and infrastructure to support elderly resilience. Isolation is a major threat to senior wellness, whereas social engagement helps older adults feel valued andRenewed purpose, mastery over new skills, reliance on personal strengths—these and other resilience-building techniques allow the elderly to maintain positive self-regard even as they navigate age-related obstacles. Both individuals and society share responsibility for putting protective systems and attitudes in place so that seniors can push back against negative age biases and constructively adapt to aging.

The Critical Role of Resilient Self-Perception

Why does resilience hold such importance for self-esteem and self-concept in the elderly? As older adults adjust to shifting social roles and abilities, their fundamental sense of self is also vulnerable to change. By buffering against the internalization of ageist stereotypes and overcoming adversity, resilience enables seniors to preserve their dignity and personal narratives (Katz & Calasanti, 2014).

Additionally, threats to health and independence in later-life stages can understandably impact perceptions of capability and autonomy. However, successfully adapting to illness and lifestyle modifications depends largely on one’s self-efficacy, motivation, and overall resilience (MacLeod et al., 2016). In other words, resilience strengthens seniors’ confidence in their competence and control—self-appraisals closely tied to performance outcomes.

In the face of loss and life disruption, the elderly demonstrate incredible resilience every day. But attention and resources should be directed toward furnishing them with adequate systems of support. All older adults have reservoirs of experience and courage to draw on if supplied with the necessary psychological, social, and environmental reinforcements. A resilient outlook is ultimately essential for seniors to sustain positive self-regard amid aging’s trials and tribulations.

Promoting Senior Resilience Across Settings

While resilience depends in part on the individual, environments also confer vulnerability or strength. All elements of society must be examined as potential avenues for better assisting elderly resilience.

In healthcare:

Screen older patients for resilience factors during intake assessments to identify vulnerabilities early (Manning, 2018)
Train clinicians in resilience-oriented and dignity-preserving approaches for aging patients (Fullen, 2018)
Develop tailored treatment plans to sustain senior self-sufficiency amid health issues (Tavares et al., 2017)
In communities:

Increase public education campaigns to challenge negative age stereotypes (Nelson, 2016)
Provide accessible and affordable senior centers for engagement and peer support (Katz & Calasanti, 2014)
Ensure aging-friendly policies, infrastructure, and transportation services (Lui et al., 2020)
In homes:

Teach senior resilience tactics to live-in partners and caretakers (Lee et al., 2019)
Remain vigilant for elder isolation and obstacles to independent functioning (Hayman et al., 2017)
Help seniors modify living spaces to retain autonomy longer (Lamond et al., 2009)
Across settings, the prescription for senior services should include resilience. Protecting older adults’ self-esteem and self-image requires environments prepared to deliver appropriate physical and emotional supports.

Conclusion

From healthcare systems to local neighborhoods, communities that enable elders to preserve independence, dignity, and purpose are communities that allow seniors’ self-esteem to endure. Resilience is the key to unlocking older adults’ inner resolve and self-efficacy to constructively navigate aging’s winding road. Everyone stands to gain when societies provide environments and resources reinforcing senior resilience against aging stereotypes and adversity. With strong-enough communal foundations upholding them, the elderly can retain positive self-regard and continue growing as individuals even into advanced age. The essential task ahead is therefore to continue investigating evidence-based resilience practices for older adults while advocating for senior-supporting values and policies across all levels of society.

References

Fullen, M.C. (2018). Ageism and the counseling profession: Causes, consequences, and methods for counteraction. Professional Counselor, 8(2), 104-114. http://dx.doi.org/10.15241/mcf.8.2.104

Harris, P.B. & Dollinger, S. (2017). Participation in a creative arts therapy program for older adults with mild to moderate dementia. Dementia, 18(6), 1945-1969. https://doi.org/10.1177/1471301217745404

Hayman, K.J., Kerse, N., & Consedine, N.S. (2017). Resilience in context: The special case of advanced age. Aging & Mental Health, 21(6), 577-585. https://doi.org/10.1080/13607863.2016.1196336

Katz, S. & Calasanti, T. (2014). Critical perspectives on successful aging: Does it “appeal more than it illuminates”? The Gerontologist, 55(1), 26-33. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnu027

Lamond, A.J., Depp, C.A., Allison, M., Langer, R., Reichstadt, J., Moore, D.J., Golshan, S., Ganiats, T.G., & Jeste, D.V. (2009). Measurement and predictors of resilience among community-dwelling older women. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 43(2), 148-154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2008.03.007

Lee, K.H., Boltz, M., Lee, H.J., & Algase, D. (2019). Resilience buffers the impact of traumatic brain injury on anxiety in community-dwelling older adults. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 41(5), 769-786. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193945918800600

Lui, C.W., Snider, L.M., & Curyto, K.J. (2020). Promoting resilience in older adults. Clinical Gerontologist 44(1), 89-101. https://doi.org/10.1080/07317115.2020.1814949

MacLeod, S., Musich, S., Hawkins, K., Alsgaard, K., & Wicker, E.R. (2016). The impact of resilience among older adults. Geriatric Nursing, 37(4), 266-272. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gerinurse.2016.02.014

Manning, L.K. (2018). End-of-life conversations: Fostering resilience in advanced age. Generations, 42(1), 53-61.

Nelson, T.D. (2016). Promoting healthy aging by confronting ageism. American Psychologist, 71(4), 276-282. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0040221

Tavares, D.M.S., de Oliveira, M.A.D.C., Dias, F.A., & Santos, N.C.B.D. (2017). Resilience of caregivers of people with dementia: A systematic review of biological and psychosocial determinants. Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, 39(1), 12-29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/2237-6089-2016-0032

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