COVID-19 and vulnerability vs. successful aging and mental health

Abstract

Introduction: COVID-19 and the measures generated to protect older adults have marked much more the vulnerability of this group, increasing psychosocial risk factors such as disengagement, mistreatment, anxiety; which required examining patterns of successful old age that generate and guarantee mental health in the elderly. Objective: to characterize those indicators of a successful old age that promote mental health, through its concrete expression in a patient. Method: qualitative approach, favoring the single critical case study. To assess the mental health and vulnerability criteria, a semi-structured interview was used. For the characterization of old age, we worked with the biographical method and the life history technique, from August to November 2021. Results: vulnerability criteria such as widowhood and loneliness were identified, but prevailed micro and macrosocial strengths at an individual level, which is consolidated with a healthy mental state that was expressed in evident functioning and psychological well-being. All the indicators of successful aging that were defined were presented in the patient, guaranteeing satisfactory transit through the stage. Conclusions: the patient with a successful old age has networks of integration, activation and transcendence that allow him to restructure his field of action in a context such as COVID-19; guaranteeing self-assessment and a sense of life, expressed in a developing way to favor their mental health and psychological development.

Keywords

• vejez exitosa
• salud mental
• covid-19
• vulnerabilidad