Christmas and Disability
Claudewell S. Thomas, MD, MPH, DLFAPA, is an established psychiatrist who is currently retired ,, He received his medical degree in 1956 at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and specializes in social psychiatry, public health psychiatry, and forensic psychiatry. Dr. Thomas was board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry... more
Anxiety and depression run rampant during the holiday seasons. For those still active in the labor force, office parties and shows of camaraderie are required despite prevailing conditions. Much is required from friends and family. For the elderly with long empty nests and increasing debility and disability, the holidays from Columbus and Valentine’s Day through Veterans Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, Hannakuh, etc., invites dwell in the past with long-lost relationships.
Alcohol, cannabis, opioids, fentanyl, etc. are going up in use. So too is suicide. Alzheimer's is on the increase with the irritability and aggression of one of its forms increasing. It is a huge task for families to decide where, when, and what facilities make sense and what can be afforded. If the generation most at risk of institutionalization had done prior work, it’s a blessing but not to be expected.
Government at many levels has a role. While able to participate we should do what we can to preserve safeguards; some of us recognize the power and safeguarding of constitutional democracy while acknowledging its fragility. Apropos of the embattled position of medicine in the world one sees hospitals becoming the frontlines in the battle between the IDF and Hamas and supporters. This background scenario becomes the frontline very quickly adding to the chaos of the holidays. For the elderly hold tight to friends and family.
