Anderson Katrina, Wickramariyaratne Tushara, Blair Annaliese
Southern NSW LHD, Level 3, 34 Lowe Street, Queanbeyan, NSW 2620, Australia.
Aust J Prim Health. 2017 Oct;23(5):489-495. doi: 10.1071/PY15185.
Mental health practices are not working for older people with anxiety in residential care, as there is a persistent lack of recognition and treatment. This suggests that alternative ways of reaching and meeting the needs of this population need to be explored. One possibility involves enabling older adults themselves to seek help. The current work explored various factors impacting on help-seeking behaviours. In total, 105 participants from independent living units in a residential care setting completed a questionnaire focusing on attitudes and stigma towards anxiety, likelihood to seek help, help-seeking barriers and literacy around the symptoms of anxiety. Participants in the main did not hold negative attitudes towards other people with anxiety, despite concerns that other people could view them negatively if they were experiencing anxiety. Barriers to help-seeking included: difficulties recognising physical anxiety symptoms as being indicative of anxiety; the effectiveness of treatments; costs; misdiagnosis; privacy; medication usage and the associated side-effects; and, uneasiness about the skills and knowledge of health professionals. Although concerns were not held by all participants, the fact remains that anxiety is largely undiagnosed and untreated for this population and these stoppages to appropriate care must be addressed.
心理健康措施对住在养老院且患有焦虑症的老年人不起作用，因为一直存在对焦虑症认识不足和治疗缺乏的问题。这表明需要探索满足这一人群需求的其他途径。一种可能性是让老年人自己寻求帮助。当前的研究探讨了影响求助行为的各种因素。在一家养老院独立生活单元中，共有105名参与者完成了一份问卷，问卷聚焦于对焦虑症的态度和污名化、寻求帮助的可能性、求助障碍以及对焦虑症症状的认知。总体而言，参与者对其他焦虑症患者并没有负面态度，尽管他们担心如果自己患有焦虑症，其他人会对他们有负面看法。求助障碍包括：难以将身体上的焦虑症状识别为焦虑症的表现；治疗效果；费用；误诊；隐私；药物使用及相关副作用；以及对医护人员技能和知识的不安。尽管并非所有参与者都有这些担忧，但事实仍然是，这一人群中的焦虑症在很大程度上未被诊断和治疗，必须解决这些妨碍适当护理的问题。
