Abstract

Elderly people are a vital human resource for the family and society. With the growing age, elderly people faces physical, social, emotional, and mental health problems due to the immigration of their family members’ especially adult children. The study was done with an aim to identify various mental health concerns of elderly people and associated challenges. The study also focused on the social work interventions required to deal with the mental health issues of the elderly people living in Punjab, India whose children got settled internationally. A qualitative descriptive study was undertaken using non-probability sampling method, i.e., snow ball sampling with a sample of 60 respondents, specifically, only the parents whose one or more children were settled abroad. Interview of the respondents were conducted with the help of an interview guide. Almost all the respondents had one or the other mental health issues and feeling of loneliness, anxiety, emotional stress, fear of loss of spouse, cognitive decline, and depression. For sending the children abroad, respondents had taken loan or sold their property. A few of the parents shared that they supported their children without the feeling of being burdened as part of their responsibilities. The respondents also showed their concern that the economic stability of their immigrant children was an important aspect for them but the physical presence of the children would have solved many of the left behind parents’ social, emotional, physical and mental health problems. The study reflected that the elderly persons were facing one or the other financial, physical and mental health problems due to the immigration of their children. Social workers play an important role in geriatric care, social workers facilitate all the possible psycho-social support and counselling to elderly people through social case-work and social group-work approach. It was suggested that to overcome the feeling of loneliness and isolation, there should be elderly people’s forum and recreational centers for the elderly so that they could socially connect with their age group people. Also, there was a need to promote health care seeking behaviour amongst left behind elderly parents of the immigrated children

Keywords: Anxiety, Geriatric, Immigration, Mental Health, Loneliness, Isolation