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.