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Social Gerontology

1) The document discusses social gerontology and focuses on the elderly population in India, which constitutes about 8.6% of the total population. Kerala and Tamil Nadu have the highest percentages of elderly citizens. 2) It presents a case study of 68-year-old Mrs. Sathya Vani, who lives in a government old age home in Kollam, Kerala after the death of her husband. She keeps herself socially and physically active in the home and finds community and purpose amongst the other residents. 3) The conclusion is that meeting Mrs. Sathya Vani demonstrated the importance of being grateful, enjoying the present, and finding forgiveness and love as keys to a happy life as

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61 views5 pages

Social Gerontology

1) The document discusses social gerontology and focuses on the elderly population in India, which constitutes about 8.6% of the total population. Kerala and Tamil Nadu have the highest percentages of elderly citizens. 2) It presents a case study of 68-year-old Mrs. Sathya Vani, who lives in a government old age home in Kollam, Kerala after the death of her husband. She keeps herself socially and physically active in the home and finds community and purpose amongst the other residents. 3) The conclusion is that meeting Mrs. Sathya Vani demonstrated the importance of being grateful, enjoying the present, and finding forgiveness and love as keys to a happy life as

Uploaded by

Lemon Gunderson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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SOCIAL

GERONTOLOGY

SUBMITTED BY: HRIDYA MARY SABU


22/USCA/053
INTRODUCTION

Citizens of India above the age of 60 are considered as elderly or senior citizens.They
constitute the old age population of India _ about 8.6% of the total population. The
population of elderly is highest in Kerala followed by Tamil Nadu. The elderly constitutes
12.6% of the population in Kerala and 10.4% in Tamil Nadu.

People with higher life satisfaction describe themselves as having social supports in
a more extensive, frequent and reliable ways, a more contested feeling in their relationships
with others, and engaging in a greater number of pleasant activities as well. They are
reported to focus irrational beliefs, were more optimistic and less pessimistic, and had lower
levels of reported cognitive difficulty.

But the living conditions of elderly are degrading now a days with very low life satisfaction
rates. About 15 million of this population lead a lonely and secluded life due to various
reasons like abuse from home, death of partner etc.

ABOUT THE INSTITUTION


Government old age home Kollam started in 2015 January 13, which is located in Kollam
district. It has been 8 years. This institution has taken an initiative to bring together all the
elderly people who need help and there are another 5 institutions started by this Government
old age home.And they are also having an idea to start an hospital especially for old people
without any profit motive. This manager also goes to the houses to provide elderly people
who needs help, medical care, food, which is being a very good initiative taken by him.

CASE STUDY
Mrs.Sathya Vani, 68 years residing at Kollam. Her husband passed away last year. Her
husband got retired as professor in a private college and she has two children. Now she is not
well . Mentally she is not okay.She is a diabetic patient , high blood pressure . She goes on
weekly checkups for her. She talked with me for an hour. She was very happy to talk with
us. Her first child lives in USA and second child stays near Kochi. Many times she told her
children may come tomorrow to see her. She thanks God for giving her supportive husband
and parents. Now she says she has no regrets about the disease or doesn't get depressed
thinking about any such traces the family immediately stands next to her and help in bringing
her out of it. After her husband death 1 week stay with her second child but she feel
depressed and unhappy. She feels loneliness in that house. So she decided herself to stay an
old age home. She says after she came here she didn't feel unhappy or loneliness she have
many friends here. Total 50 members lived in this old age home (above 60 both men and
women). She is well educated but she didn't want to a job.

She is a very active person and interacts with the entire neighborhood. She has lots of
friends, her favorite pass time is to talk to people, spending time in the temple. The entire
elderly people doing paper bags and handicraft. They will sell it for a low price. She watches
TV show. She spends time with animals and birds. And she watering plants is one of her
favourite work. She says the last month the all the members in the old age home went to
Kollam beach with a member of Kollam district taluk officer. At that time she was extremely
happy she said that on that day the entire members were very happy as well.

She reads newspaper daily. Apart from keeping herself busy with all these activities she
keeps herself busy with small household chores so that she doesn't fall into the trap of
anxiety and depression. Her family members would come to visit her during vacation and
during festivals. She doesn't have any regrets in her life. She used to go for a evening walk
with friends. She is happy with what she has and is content with her present life.
CONCLUSION

After meeting with Mrs Sathya Vani, I learned that we should always be grateful for the life
that we are living and should learn to enjoy the present moments. Regrets, anger, and
bitterness will only rob us of our mental peace, and forgiving and loving people as they are
the keys to a happy life. It was a memorable experience meeting and talking with her.

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