It’s All Relative: What to do when a parent is depressed
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In this month’s installment of her column on adult children and their aging parents, Rosemary McClure looks at depression among older adults. She writes:
Increasingly, health professionals are recognizing that depression among older adults is a serious problem that needs to be treated. They’re also recognizing that adult children are often oblivious.’Younger people, including younger medical personnel, often don’t notice it,’ says psychologist Bob G. Knight, associate dean at the Andrus Gerontology Center at USC. ‘When they do, it doesn’t surprise them. They think: ‘They ought to be depressed, they’re old.’ So instead of helping the person deal with it, they ignore it.’
You can read her full column here, which includes a list of symptoms, and a sidebar on helpful resources here.
--Deborah Netburn
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