Chithra Nellai K, Harbishettar Vijaykumar, Gowda Guru S, Srinivasa Preeti, Gowda Mahesh
Dept. of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
Health Heal Home Health Care Services, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
Indian J Psychol Med. 2021 Sep;43(5 Suppl):S19-S24. doi: 10.1177/02537176211038024. Epub 2021 Oct 5.
The elderly population, with those individuals above the age of 60 years, is increasing exponentially, attributable to higher life expectancy as a result of improved health care, socioeconomic level, and quality of life. As they grow older (>80 years), it becomes difficult to manage their basic needs and daily living. A report on Decade of Healthy Ageing estimates that 14% of people aged 60 years and above cannot meet their basic daily needs which include the ability to manage finances. Some elderly people depend on others to manage finances because of their inability to make decisions resulting in conflicts and communication problems between siblings and other members of the family and lodging of civil lawsuits in India's joint family unit. So, decision-making is an important area to assess in the elderly people, given its clinical, legal, and ethical aspects. Courts of law can refer to older persons for assessing their capacity to manage finances, though there are no structured clinical procedures to assess it in India. This article evaluates existing methods around the world, discusses the challenges associated with the assessment, and provides clinicians with guidance on assessing financial capacity from an Indian perspective.
60岁及以上的老年人口正在呈指数级增长，这归因于医疗保健、社会经济水平和生活质量的改善导致预期寿命延长。随着年龄增长（超过80岁），满足他们的基本需求和日常生活变得困难。一份关于健康老龄化十年的报告估计，60岁及以上的人群中有14%无法满足其基本日常需求，其中包括理财能力。一些老年人由于无法做出决策，依赖他人管理财务，这导致印度大家庭中兄弟姐妹及其他家庭成员之间产生冲突和沟通问题，并引发民事诉讼。因此，鉴于决策在临床、法律和伦理方面的考量，它是评估老年人时的一个重要领域。在印度，虽然没有结构化的临床程序来评估老年人的理财能力，但法院在评估其理财能力时可以参考老年人的情况。本文评估了世界各地现有的方法，讨论了评估相关的挑战，并从印度视角为临床医生提供评估理财能力的指导。
