Running head: INTERVIEW RELFECTION

Older Adults and Depression

Introduction
Angella Stuart who is an LPC, Licensed Practicing Counselor, was kind enough to let me
interview her the night of April 10, 2016. I took the opportunity to ask her a few questions about
her experience working with older adults who suffer with depression. I introduced myself as
LaNaarai Wilder, a BSW junior at Georgia State University working on a project about older
adults and depression. Ms. Stuart explained to me that there are physical and mental factors that
contribute to depression and add to a persons struggle with depression. Older adults with
depression tend to isolate and cause hardship when the person tries to regain mental and physical
activity.
Analysis
Depression, like any other disorder, is different for each individual over the course of
their life. This being said it is understandable why the older adult that Ms. Stuart works with,
Lady A, did not experience depression until after she retired. Research shows that situational
factors like illness, disability, discrimination, changing roles, and loss of financial, social, and
other supports can contribute to depression in older adults. Lady A was a school teacher up until
she retired at age 70. She was used to having the summers off so she did not start exhibiting
symptoms until her mind and body realized that she would not be engaging in the roles that were
normal for her. This change in roles eventually contributed to her disengagement and inability to
regain interest in being active. A phenomenon that has been on the rise lately in young adult hood
and older adulthood is suicide. For older adulthood, it is easier to contemplate and follow
through with suicide because, as Ms. Stuart told me, older adults have more access to
medications. They also have more time and isolation to come up with their plan of action.
Research says that suicide risk increases with age and older adults are more likely to complete
suicide because the elderly tend to plan their deaths and give fewer indications of their suicidal
thoughts than young adults do (Rogers, pp. 384).
Personal Impact
Learning about depression across the life course/span has been interesting because the
studies on depression are more in-depth than I would have imagined. There are some similarities
in how individuals across the life span experience depression, however, there are also a few
differences in the specific ways that individuals are effected by depression. Young adults and
older adults are more likely to contemplate suicide when they are depressed than middle adults.
Middle adults are more likely to experience a loss of interest and energy than young adults. Even
within each age range, people experience depression very differently. The interview showed me
the consensus that experts have about the depression. Ms. Stuart talked about some of the exact
same things that Rogers discusses in Human Behavior in the Social Environment and the overall
research conducted on older adults.
Future Social Work

INTERVIEW REFLECTION

I do not plan to work with older adults. However, I would like to work with women, children,
and maybe in rehabilitation. After researching depression, I realize that because I will be work in
social services, depression is going to be one of many disorders I will have to help my clients
work through. I need to learn and keep learning everything I can about how depression affects
people so that I will be able to be affective in how I work. I cannot try to work with something I
cannot understand.