To prevent addiction and promote the autonomy of the elderly

04.05.16 Interview with Ana Charamelo, psychologist of the British Hospital Memory Clinic. Throughout this year and organized by the Memory Clinic , the British Hospital will carry out series of six workshops entitled "Know how to age prevent dependency," aiming to obtain tools to have a better life quality, healthy and autonomous. Regarding members inquiries about common elderly disorders, the period was organized, being focused on prevention and education, aiming to provide tools in order to improve the life quality of the eldery, explained the Lic. Psychology Ana Charamelo, member of the Memory Clinic multidisciplinary team. With an excellent response from partners and as an introduction into the sequence of workshops, a few days ago was held the first workshop, entitled "How years change us". After the meeting, Charamelo mentioned that "the most important is to appeal to prevention and the promotion of healthy attitudes" and that the main target of this period is to prevent dependency besides promoting the elderly autonomy. The dialogue with the specialist: -What´s the reason of this first workshop and which is its role in the series of workshops planned? -The First workshop, that we call "How years change us", was aimed to enable the group to face the negative stereotypes related to old age and aging, being able to recognize them per se and visualize how these make difficult an active, healthy and successful aging. We try to analyze changes associated with the age, from the physical, psychological and social point of view. -In the first workshop she investigated with participants issues such as memory impairment, cognitive impairment, mental illnesses and general health deterioration. What impact do they have on the stage you defined as "aging of aging"? The concept of "aging of aging" is a concept that social sciences, especially Demography, use to explain longevity. The process of population aging, not only gives numbers of the percentage of people who will continue rising, but also adds another phenomenon: the elderly live longer, that´s why the number of people who are 80 and people who are even older has been growing. The discussion in this first workshop was focused on the point that not all old people will suffer severe cognitive impairments such as dementia, or Alzheimer disease, and not all are going to have mental disorders or physical disabilities. While it is true that as we grow old there is more wear of the body and more health problems show up, these do not mean that autonomy is lost. The most important point of the meeting is to appeal to the prevention and the promotion of healthy attitudes. She also referred to aspects of the "character" or of the "mood" as irritability, stiffness, inflexibility or loss of interest in things. Are these changes in personality? And if they are, are they normal at this stage of life? -When we refer to aging psychological changes, we are talking about the wrong belief that all the elders are “grouch”, bad tempered” or “grumpy”. Actually, everyone lives their lives and grows old with their own personality and those characteristics become more rigid in the later stages of life. Say that all the elderly are equal is a mistake, at this stage the interindividual differences can be clearly visualized. - Independence was another strong aspect. It´s counterpart, dependence, is often something that the elderly and their families concerned about. First of all, are we prepared to deal with it as a family, and as a society, then? It's true that the strong point of these series of workshops is the concept of Dependency versus Autonomy, aiming to prevent the first and promote the second. We are conscious that a significant number of elderly with different levels of dependency and that this impact s in the individual, family and society negatively. And that impact is emotional and financial at all levels. When we talk about dependency we talk about “attendance” and we are preparing for that. In what government is concerned some work is being done to implement a "National System of Care", being one of the target populations the dependent elderly. -How the elderly react when addressing the issue of sexuality at this stage of life? -The issue of "sexuality" was discussed very briefly and it was treated by the group with much more interest. It is one of the "taboo" subjects which usually do not find spaces for a serious and professional reflection. Many times they go to the doctor to raise concerns in a health problem in a masked way. -¿Which would you say were the issues that deserved more attention from participants and why? - One of the issues that most concern them is to get the tools for an active mind and avoid problems like Alzheimer Disease. "Sleep is health. Healthy eating"; "Fall Prevention"; "Depression. No, thanks"; "Mind working. Memory "and" Good relationships", are the titles or triggers of the next sequences of workshops, among others.