The Research On The Mental Health And Social Support Of Widowed Elderly People

At present, various subsidies and allowance towards the elderly are constantly increasing in China. However, besides meeting the elderly’s material demands, we also need to pay great attention to the elderly’s psychological condition, because with the development of aging population quickened, there are more and more elderly people who have lost their other half. Nowadays, widowed elderly people have become a large group, and this group of people is vulnerable to psychological problems. Generally speaking, widowed elderly people is more like to develop all kinds of psychological problems even disease than those who have a spouse.The previous studies have shown that the social support have influence on psychological condition. They have a close relationship. So,based on this theory, the paper tries to establish a social support system to improve widowed elderly people’s psychological condition.The research have collected 307 effective questionnaires in order to gain a clear understanding on the current situation of the elderly’s mental health condition and social support status, compare the mental health condition and social support status of widowed elderly people and those who have a spouse, analyzing the mental health problems and flaws in social support, grasping the relativity between the indicators of widowed elderly people’s mental health condition and social support through correlation analysis.The research has shown that the psychological health and socialsupport status of the widowed elderly people are poorer than those who have a spouse. There is significant difference of psychological health condition and social support status on different education level, political status, health condition, self-care ability, widowed years, sons and daughters’ absence of home. There are significant correlation between the mental health condition and social support of widowed elderly people(r=0.504, P<0.05). The utilization degree and subjective support of social support have a large correlation with psychological health condition,which suggests that these factors will have a large influence on the psychological health condition of widowed elderly people.In consideration of above research results, this paper has proposed the following suggestions base on strengths perspective and social support theories: on one hand, the Chinese government should increase the financial support towards the elderly; the community should promote elderly people’s enthusiasm for activities; Sons and daughters should fulfill the material and spirit demands of their single parents. Social workers should get involved to improve the social environment and social support of the elderly. On the other hand, widowed people should try to move on with their life and increase interactions with others, accepting and establishing a new lifestyle to actively adjust to new life.