Aged Care Counselling

Support is Available!

Seeking counselling is perfectly normal for older people and can help you with building positive ways to respond to challenges you may be experiencing. It can be helpful to talk with someone outside your family, friends or carers, about personal things that are weighing on your mind. Feeling supported in a confidential and non-judgmental way, can relieve the stress and anxiety you might be feeling about your changing circumstances.

Are your thoughts keeping you from enjoying life?

• I feel useless. 
• I miss working.
• No one listens to me.
• I hate this new place.
• I miss everything I had.
• All my friends are gone.
• I’m scared about the future.
• I have no one who cares about me. 
• I have nothing to bring me joy anymore.
• I don’t get the respect and recognition I use to.
• I’m worried they’ll make me leave my home. 
• I’m forgetting the person I was.
• Why won’t anyone help me?
• No one knows who I am.
• I want my old life back.
• I’m invisible.

Maybe it’s you who’s trying to come to terms with major life changes, or perhaps you have a parent who’s feeling abandoned and alone in their changing circumstances. For example, the proposition of leaving your home of many years and being in a new setting, can be a huge struggle.  

No matter what the issue, it can be very difficult to cope when social networks are diminishing, and family are not often around. You may be feeling abandoned and helpless, unable to share with others your frustrations and questions about what’s happening to your life. 

There’s also the loss of self-identity. The person you were earlier in life seems forgotten by others. Your life accomplishments and personal story is unknown now. This can bring sadness and a sense of deep loss.

If you have moved into aged care (or contemplating it), you may be struggling with accepting and navigating the changes this involves. Aged Care Counselling can provide you with an opportunity to express what you’re feeling and talk about the challenges you’re facing with an independent confidant who is there to listen, learn about the turmoil your experiencing, and help you address the issues that arise. This can help you feel less alone and return an element of control to your new life.

Moving Forward

As we get older the challenges we must face continue. We may be dwelling on a lifetime of unprocessed grief, anxiety about what’s coming, or changes in our sense of self. Therapy can be helpful to bring things into perspective. Having someone to trust, to share anxious feelings and life memories with, can be invaluable. Talking about the past can lead to talking about the future – a positive future where life does have meaning and days are spent feeling valued, respected, and proud of one’s life. 

Talk to us about how this could be funded through your Aged Care Package or health fund.

“The great secret that old people share is that you really haven’t changed in 70 or 80 years. Your body changes, but you don’t change at all.” 

– Doris Lessing