Familial Resources of Elderly Psychiatric Patients

Abstract

CONTRARY to a popular belief that eld_ erly individuals are shunned by their fami_ lies, recent studies of family relationships of the elderly suggest persisting intrafamilial ties. Such ties are implied by findings that there is frequently close residential proximi_ ty between elderly persons and one of their children,¹ that families regularly perform household tasks for their elderly members, that elderly relatives are often housed by the family,³ and that, in general, there is "an impressive amount of mutual support in the form of friendly contact, service and familial aid" between adult family members of differing generations.⁴ It should be noted, however, that such findings apply for samples of elderly individuals who may vary widely in the degree to which they suffer from either age-related or age-independent psychological disturbances. Since aging is associated with progressive psychological deficit, it seems important to consider such a deficit