COVID it seems is here to stay with us for sometime, but while we are learning to accept it as the new normal of our lives, the senior and aging population is having a tough time accepting the behavioural change. For them, their friends and family connections, are what keeps them going and with social distancing norms, that change, is affecting their mental health in an unpleasant way.

Shikha Srivastava, a resident of Jabalpur, MP, has been struggling with helping her mother, 65 years, stay calm and positive. For her mother, it seems that the world is over and she is doomed to die. After a long chat with a counsellor on the phone, about the deteriorating mental health of her mother, Shikha has learnt a few things that is helping her mom find peace and balance.

1. Heightened anxiety from watching too much of COVID-related news and numbers used to upset her mother a lot. As a routine, Shikha now discusses other positive topics with her mother that do not revolve completely around the pandemic. She tells her mother about her children’s progress in school, discusses any new recipes, or shares cheerful pics of some new blooms in her garden with her mom.
2. When the discussion is about COVID, Shikha shares reassuring pieces of correct news with her mother such as number of recoveries, facts about recovering well from mild infection etc.
3. Her mother’s life revolved around meeting her friends everyday for tea and chit-chatting and with social distancing in place, that feeling of belongingness seems to be slipping out of her mother’s hands leaving her feeling lonely and forsaken. Shikha has moved her mother’s chai sessions online when at the same time around, she gets all the aunties together on a group video call with her mother’s tea cup next to the system. Online she organizes tambola for them, downloads videos of latest knitting designs etc..the common interest areas. Last week she made a video of her mother cooking her favourite pakoras and shared the recipe with the friends..the entire experience was exciting and satisfying for her mom.
4. Shikha has also subtly involved her mother in more household chores than before--while her mother is sitting idle, she will give her mother some small sewing jobs or ask her to chop vegetables, or help her iron the clothes...anything that will keep her occupied.
5. She was also advised to keep her mother physically active as much as possible, so both of them go out for walks together with all the precautions

(Pic credit: iconicbestiary/freepik)