An Assessment Of Psychosocial Challenges Of The Elderly In Ibagwa-Aka Community, Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area Of Enugu State, Nigeria

ABSTRACT.

A descriptive survey design was used to assess the Psychosocial Challengesin

Ibagwa-aka Community, Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area of Enugu

State, South East Nigeria. The specific objectives of the were to: identify the

mental challenges of the elderly in Ibagwa-aka community; identify the

emotional challenges of the elderly in the community studied and determined the

social challenges of the elderly in the area of studied.Validated questionnaire was

used to administer the instrument to 375 respondents from which 330 correct

responses were analyzed. Frequencies, percentages, means and standard

deviation were used in data analysis and results presented in tables. The

reliability of the instrument was done using test –re- test method and a reliability

co-efficient of 0.84 (r. 0.84) was obtained. The study revealed that 51% of the

respondents could cope with mental challenges of communication while 47%

could cope with decision making in the family. Emotionally, 55.8% could cope

with challenges of loneliness and isolation while half of the respondents 50%

could cope adequately with loss of role function, loss of self-esteem and selfworth.

In the aspect of social challenges, 53% of them experienced minimal love,

care and respect from their family members and other relations. In conclusion,

majority of the respondents were not mentally and emotionally challenged, while

more than half of them were socially challenged in the area of family

relationships and social roles in the community. It is therefore recommended that

structures should be put in place to improve family relationships and involvement

of the elderly in community activities.

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