[New challenges in old age].
Old age, with its inevitable succession of bereavement and loss, is a difficult time of life, and is often a cause of suffering on both an individual and a family level. The crises of aging, such as retirement, dependency or old age, bring a person face-to-face with their finiteness, creating anxiety and raising questions related to death. These are times of intense instability, which can lead either to personal growth through a process of adaptation and a rebuilding of one's self-image, or to a dysfunctional approach and an increase in suffering, through resistance to change. Through its work, the therapist aims to assist the elderly person to cope more serenely with the frustrations of the external reality and to come to terms with their future death.
Justiniano
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Service de psychiatrie et psychothérapie de la personne âgée, RSV-Institutions psychiatriques du Valais romand, 10, route de Morgins, 1870 Monthey. isabella.justiniano@rsv-gnw.ch
Desbaillets
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M
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D001290:Attitude; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events