With the development of society, more and more people retire, and the proportion of elderly people in society is gradually increasing. According to the survey, among the 6,000 civil disputes in Beijing in 2065, 438+00,600 involved the life of the elderly, the most of which was the "spiritual support" dispute. In Shanghai, 23% of children don't talk to the elderly, 465,438+0% talk less, and only 36% talk often. In this environment, the physical and mental problems of the elderly and various problems caused by the social environment have become increasingly prominent, and social demands for caring for the mental health of the elderly have emerged. A good attitude is beneficial to health, while a bad psychology will lead to mental disorder, which will affect the body and be harmful to health. As a volunteer organization that respects the elderly, how should we care for the elderly? How to pay attention to the basic necessities of life and daily care of the elderly to spiritual comfort and psychological care? First, we should have professional knowledge of psychology of the elderly. Due to the changes of physiological aging and external environment, the elderly often can't adapt quickly in their thoughts, emotions, living habits and interpersonal relationships, but they have various psychological changes to varying degrees. Its performance is: 1. Many factors will make the elderly feel lost, such as the change of social role and family role, the decrease of economic income, illness, widowhood and so on. At this time, there are often two emotions: ① reticence, sadness and melancholy; 2 impatient and irritable. Old people with cheerful personality and wide interests can easily find their place in life and rediscover themselves through psychological adjustment, so they can overcome their sense of loss; Old people who are introverted, withdrawn, narrow-minded and unsociable are more difficult to overcome their sense of loss. One of the psychological habits of the elderly is that they like to recall the past. Old people who lived happily in the past and made great contributions to society can often get satisfaction and self-esteem from recalling the past, thus reducing their sense of loss, while old people who have a bumpy life and have no career can hardly get satisfaction from memories. If the community, family, relatives and friends can observe the influencing factors of the elderly's psychology and help them adjust their psychological state in a targeted way, they can often effectively eliminate the sense of loss of the elderly and make them adapt to their leisure life as soon as possible. 2. The miniaturization of lonely families, the separation of children from the elderly, and the fact that some elderly people don't like to associate with others because of poor health or introverted personality have led to loneliness. Children around, if you can't be considerate of the elderly, or even have a bad relationship, not only can't eliminate the loneliness of the elderly, but it will aggravate the loneliness. The loneliness of widowed elderly people is more prominent, and physical decline and illness will also aggravate their loneliness and helplessness. Therefore, children separated from the elderly should often visit and greet the elderly, and children living with the elderly should be patient and considerate to the elderly. Letting young grandchildren get along with the elderly can often bring great joy and comfort to the elderly and effectively eliminate their loneliness. 3. Loneliness Old people who have nothing to do have less contact with society and work units, less social communication and information, and their perception ability is affected by the decline of vision and hearing, which often makes the elderly feel lonely. Often manifested as indifference to external changes, indifference to people and so on. The experience of the elderly is very different from that of the younger generation, and their views on many issues are often different from those of the younger generation. Old people often stick to their own opinions because they firmly believe in their own experience, which leads to a "generation gap" and aggravates their sense of loneliness. Children and young people should communicate with the elderly more, and listen to the elderly with special patience. This not only makes the elderly feel respected and helps to eliminate loneliness, but also the experience of the elderly is not absolutely outdated and useless. Listening patiently can often enlighten the younger generation. In addition, it is necessary to provide convenience for the elderly to read newspapers, listen to radio and watch TV, which can effectively alleviate their loneliness. 4. Worries and fears about aging and diseases. Due to the decline of physical fitness, the elderly show a decline in self-confidence in health. Once you feel unwell or sick, you will feel nervous. In addition, it will be difficult to move and seek medical treatment, which will aggravate your anxiety, worry about the development of the disease and even death. Old people who are seriously ill in bed or hospital often have the fear of death. Some elderly patients are worried about bringing financial burden to their families, but they are silent and worried. Therefore, in addition to taking care of the sick elderly, timely and targeted publicity of health care knowledge is very beneficial to rehabilitation. The second is to go deep into the community's psychological counseling volunteer organization, and organize volunteers to provide psychological care and volunteer services for the elderly who are lonely, especially those with mental illness. Establish professional psychological counseling institutions with streets and neighborhood committees, so that social workers and volunteers with professional psychological knowledge can provide professional psychological counseling for the elderly in the community. Construct a series of psychological education and psychological crisis relief systems for the elderly in the community, such as "psychological education consultation platform" and "psychological appeal decompression platform". According to the physiological characteristics and psychological needs of the elderly, psychological counseling services are carried out to alleviate their psychological "empty nest" through telephone greetings, home condolences, online chat and other forms. Help the elderly untie the knot and live a happy life. At the same time, the elderly should be encouraged to actively participate in social activities, get rid of loneliness and maintain an optimistic and healthy life. Community volunteers provide spiritual care services to the elderly who are lonely and mentally ill from time to time, often chat with the elderly, read books and newspapers to the elderly, and let them "empty down". The third is to carry out a variety of cultural, sports and fitness activities in the community, and organize the elderly to carry out sports, culture, entertainment and other group activities based on the community elderly activity room and fitness facilities. Let the old people feel full and happy. At the same time, encourage the elderly to actively participate in appropriate recreational activities, organize and cultivate their hobbies. Such as singing, dancing, playing chess, playing bridge, listening to music, painting, calligraphy, poetry and other artistic hobbies. Playing Tai Ji Chuan, practicing Qigong, gateball games, fitness activities, parties, sightseeing, planting flowers, fishing, knitting and so on. Encourage the elderly to take part in some jobs that they can and make contributions to society. Enhance the intellectual quality of the elderly and encourage them to study hard. Fourth, master the skills and methods of communicating with the elderly. As the main way to communicate with the elderly, conversation is very different from ordinary conversation. In addition to the general requirements and skills, when communicating with the elderly, it is also necessary to understand the social, family and personal situation of the elderly. Direct communication with the elderly is the main way to obtain valuable information, and conversation is the main way of communication. A good conversation depends on whether the two sides can establish a reliable relationship. It is impossible for old people to truly reflect their personal situation under the contempt and ridicule of each other, especially when they have had a beautiful and proud past and still hope to be respected and recognized. Therefore, the first condition for communicating with the elderly is respect. Regardless of the current social, economic and family status and situation of the elderly, we should show enough respect and patience from the standpoint of humanitarianism and equality, and sincerely listen to the voices of the elderly, so that the elderly can truly reflect their personal situation and obtain valuable information for their care. 5. Popularize health education for the elderly. Old age is a period of high incidence of unexpected setbacks and diseases, and it is prone to psychological crisis. It requires the elderly to have a relatively sound personality and good mentality in order to withstand the blow of accidents and improve their viability. Health education for the elderly in a planned way is an effective means to solve the mental health problems of the elderly, so that they can understand some knowledge of maintaining physical and mental health, enhance their awareness of self-care, improve their self-prevention ability, actively relieve psychological pressure and change bad emotions, which can prevent and reduce the occurrence of physical and mental diseases of the elderly. Healthy psychology means that people have a normal and perfect mental state, such as having a positive attitude towards the surrounding environment and objective things, being able to correctly analyze and adapt to the changes of things and environment, and maintaining a happy mood. Only by maintaining a healthy mind can we give full play to and adjust the normal physiological functions of various organs of the body, improve the ability and efficiency of physical and mental work, and keep the whole body in good health. As the World Health Organization defines health: "Health is a perfect state of body, mind and society, not just the absence of disease and pain". This definition also applies to the elderly. Only by maintaining a normal state and a good balance of physical, mental and social adaptability can people be considered completely healthy. 6. Social care for the elderly is a vulnerable group in society, and the whole society has the responsibility to protect them. The government and social organizations should establish some institutions and various welfare facilities for the elderly, such as mental health centers, nursing homes, nurseries, apartments and universities for the elderly. Solve the life difficulties of the elderly, enrich their spiritual life, enable them to enjoy the joy of collective life and drive away the loneliness of the elderly. For widowed elderly people, children should understand and support their legitimate psychological needs and encourage them to remarry. This is an important way to compensate the sense of loneliness and loss after widowhood. Although aging is an irresistible natural law, human beings can take various effective measures to delay aging. The World Health Organization has pointed out through full research that 60% of people's health and longevity depend on a healthy lifestyle and healthy psychology. Throughout the ages, there are many long-lived old people at home and abroad. The famous painter Picasso lived to the age of 86; Deng Xiaoping, a great proletarian revolutionary in China, lived to the age of 93; Chai Huo, the first German scientist who put forward the theory of petroleum alkylation, lived to 103. Professor Ma Yinchu, a famous economist in China, suffered many disasters all his life, but the old man lived to 10 1 year. Although the life span, lifestyle and conditions of the birthday stars are different, they all have the same psychological characteristics, such as psychological stability, strong adaptability, optimism, openness, adaptation to the environment and enrichment of spiritual life. Therefore, longevity and healthy psychology are inseparable. It is the unremitting pursuit of every volunteer in our volunteer organization to strive to achieve the goal of "providing for the elderly, providing medical care, teaching, learning, doing something and having fun". This work goal is of great practical and far-reaching historical significance to ensure that the elderly live a happier and more dignified life!