Healthcare Assignment: Psychological Impact of COVID-19 on Elderly People in United Kingdom
Question
Task: Your task is to prepare a healthcare assignment on the topic “Consider the psychosocial impact of the current COVID 19 Pandemic on the Daily Lives of the Elderly Population In the United Kingdom.”
Answer
Introduction
The research on healthcare assignment signifies that COVID-19 is a disease that is caused by an infection in humans due to a newly discovered virus that is named Corona virus. People that are infected from COVID-19 are seemed to experience a placid to moderate level of illness due to problems projected by the virus within their respiratory systems (Who.int, 2021). Serious health issues due to the particular disease are found to be prevalent within old or rather elderly people that are said to be facing health problems such as diabetes, cardiovascular, chronic respiratory diseases and cancer. The Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson announced a complete lockdown throughout the nation on 23rd March 2020 through national television and since then staying at home became legally mandatory for all. In the next month, 10,000 deaths were registered as a record within the nation, as Matt Hancock set a target of 100,000 COVID-19 tests every day (Syal, 2020).
Effect of COVID-19 in United Kingdom
On May 5th 2020, UK was found to exceed the records of Italy in terms of death tolls, having fatalities of over 32,000. This lead to the adoption of quarantine measures, where people arriving in the UK were mandatorily required to self-isolating them for 14 days from June 8th in order to lower the rate of spreading of the virus. In the next month, there were cases of relaxation of pandemic measures, like pubs, cinemas and restaurants shall be reopened under the implications of strict social distancing. Paying fines became legally mandatory since August for the people that opposed the critical situations within the nation and for those people that were found to violate any government rules of social distancing (Davis, 2021). In the next month, people started taking initiatives by increasingly downloading the new government’s contract-tracing app that had the functionality of telling people to remain in self-isolation if they were found to be closely related to people having infected by the virus (Davis, 2021).
On 2nd December, the second lockdown phase came to an end when vaccines were started to be provided to the people outside clinical trials. However, Johnson called upon national lockdown again on January 2021, when a new variant of the virus was found to be witnessed in the nation. Soon after taking mandatory measures in February, as the previous year, socialising was now allowed from March however, keeping physical interaction to minimum levels.
Social effect of COVID-19 on elderly people of the society
According to Alderslade(2020), elder or rather old-aged people can be defined as those people that fall within the age category of 60 years and above.However, within the UK and other European countries, people falling within the age segment of 65 years and above are said to have entered old age within their respective lives.
A statistical figure of the percentage of people being affected by their age has been given the appendix of the study. According to the figure it can be seen that people belonging within the age segment above 70 years are finding it difficult is accessing essential materials such as groceries and medicines due to the outbreak of the virus and lockdown aspects due to the pandemic sessions within the UK. They are also proclaiming that their well-being and motivation to live is also reducing with time due to so many hindrances due to the virus in the last phases of their respective lives (StatistaInfographics. 2020). It can also be seen that various emotions within people falling under the old age category are said to be higher in terms of satisfaction in lives, and happiness. However, feeling worthless and anxious about their lives are seemed to be more in elderly people compared to people in other age categories.
Due to social distancing and lockdown, there might be cases where people falling in the old-aged category have to spend their time alone within their houses or during the time of self-isolation. This is because the recovery rate from the disease is said to be lower among elderly people due to which they had to spend most of the time away from the families and close belongings.
Main Body
1. Define what we mean by psychosocial and give examples
Psychosocial is a term that defines a behaviour or characteristic of an individual when it found to be surrounded by social factors and their corresponding influences on an individual's mental health and behaviour. These characteristics are stated to be the development of psychological attributes within an individual in relation to his or her interaction within the social and cultural environment. Aspects such as closeness or loneliness, contented or anxious, happy or sad, joy or grief and so on are some of the examples of good and negative psychosocial terminology that are said to be built due to individual interaction with the surrounding environment.
2. Identify and discuss at least 5 ways in which the elderly have been impacted by COVID 19 from a psychosocial perspective
As seen from the statistical information mentioned above, people within the old-aged category are found to be majorly influenced in a negative manner by the corona virus and the implications of the pandemic. The aspects are similar within almost every nation like those assessed and evaluated within the UK. The ways with which elderly people are being negatively impacted from COVID-19 are still increasing with time even measures in the development of vaccines are being considered within every nation.
Impact due to uncertainty:
One of the major psychosocial ways in which elderly people are being negatively influenced is being uncertain regarding the symptoms and course of illness. The level of stress within the elderly people due to the negative psychosocial issue is increasing, which is leading to higher aspects of panicking within the particular age segment of people compared to the others (Expresshealthcare.in, 2020).
Impact by creatinganxiety:
The positive mindset of surviving and leading a prosperous life for the remaining time is becoming lower among elderly people since they are giving up their hope of fighting and surviving within the pandemic session, especially from the disease (Cheunget al., 2020). Fear of death or Anxietyis another way in which the corona virus had integrated negative emotions within the elderly people all across the nation when seen from a psychosocial perspective. The reason for increased negative emotions belongs to the fact that they believe or rather fear the most to die since they are already facing health problems in their respective lives such as diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular diseasesand others as well as now they increasingly prone to COVID-19 disease compared to the other age categories.
social distancing leading to isolation:
Feeling lonely due to social distancingis another psychosocial factor which elderly people are said to be experiencing during the current situations of the pandemic. If being tested positive, elderly people are being shifted to self-isolation wards immediately and are kept within the same for many days since the recovery rate from the disease is seemed to be lowered with the increase of age in humans (Dubeyet al., 2020). This way they are found to be always in grief and mourning regarding the fact that there are the least numbers of days remaining to spent lives with their loved ones however, they are spending those days in isolation due to the disease.
Depression due to witnessing death:
Fear of losing loved ones and witnessing the deaths in the societycan also be considered as another factor that is causing a severe impact on the elderly individuals of the society. Even though, the elderly people are the ones who are in most danger in terms of physical capability, witnessing deaths of relatives and closer people in the society can also be identified as a reason of anxiety and overall psychological impact. Such issues are creating a sense of loosing all hopes which is consequently leading to depression. Due to the high number of old age death, people are also feeling insure about their age. They are getting depressed due to their physical limitations which are being constantly reminded by the huge death rate of old age people due to Covid.
Sadness and loneliness
The state of ease and calmness is found to be lacking within the elderly people, as they start panicking at an increased rate from normal incidents due to the fear developed from the disease even if they are not found to be tested positive (Sepúlveda-Loyolaet al.,2020). Homesickness caused due to not able to go out that is either developed within them or stated by their medical assessors and family members are making them feel more left out from the society, where people in other age groups are found to stay motivated and keep hope within respective lives. These ways negative psychosocial issues are being found to be negatively influencing the mindset and mentality of the old aged people, where the knowledge regarding the remedies are not lesser-known.
Conclusion
From the above-discussed aspects, it can be concluded that the rate of getting easily prone to the disease is more within elderly people compared to that other age segments. This aspect is making the same age segment more stressed within their lives where the existence of remedies is at a very few rate. However, initiatives such as making them not feel left out by continuously indulging them in entertaining conversations and activities might let them feel relieved from the negative mentality and pandemic in particular (Who.int, 2020). Compassion and kindness towards elderly people, being related to them by blood or not, are major solutions that would keep them motivated in their lives and except hopes of survival. Stories of recovery rates are required to share with elderly people as well so that they can attain a hope to fight with the situations of pandemic and particularly with the disease if found to be tested positive. Therefore, these are ways that shall loosen up their respective worries and allow them to live in similar ways compared to other age segments within global societies.
References
1. Alderslade, L., 2020. What age is considered 'old'. [online] Aged Care Guide. Available at:
2. Cheung, G., Rivera-Rodriguez, C., Martinez-Ruiz, A., Ma’u, E., Ryan, B., Burholt, V., Bissielo, A. and Meehan, B., 2020. Impact of COVID-19 on the health and psychosocial status of vulnerable older adults: study protocol for an observational study. BMC Public Health, 20(1), pp.1-9.
3. Davis, B., 2021. A timeline of the year since the UK officially went into lockdown. [online] Evening Standard. Available at:
4. Dubey, S., Biswas, P., Ghosh, R., Chatterjee, S., Dubey, M.J., Chatterjee, S., Lahiri, D. and Lavie, C.J., 2020. Psychosocial impact of COVID-19. Healthcare assignmentDiabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews, 14(5), pp.779-788.
5. Expresshealthcare.in. 2020. COVID-19 and its impact on mental health of the elderly. [online] Available at:
6. Ons.gov.uk. 2020. Coronavirus and the social impacts on older people in Great Britain - Office for National Statistics. [online] Available at:
7. Sepúlveda-Loyola, W., Rodríguez-Sánchez, I., Pérez-Rodríguez, P., Ganz, F., Torralba, R., Oliveira, D.V. and Rodríguez-Mañas, L., 2020. Impact of social isolation due to COVID-19 on health in older people: Mental and physical effects and recommendations. The journal of nutrition, health & aging, pp.1-10.
8. StatistaInfographics. 2020. Infographic: Study: Elderly Most At Risk From The Coronavirus. [online] Available at:
9. Who.int. 2020. https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/mental-health-considerations.pdf. [online] Available at:
10. Who.int. 2021. Coronavirus. [online] Available at:
11. Syal, R. (2020). Matt Hancock sets target of 100,000 coronavirus tests a day. Retrieved 27 May 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/02/matt-hancock-sets-target-of-100000-coronavirus-tests-a-day
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