LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF SENIOR COUNSELING TO REDUCE POST-PANDEMIC ANXIETY
LONG-TERM EFFECTS OF SENIOR COUNSELING TO REDUCE POST-PANDEMIC ANXIETY

Summary/Abstract: The pandemic generated by the COVID-19 virus has affected the entire structure of society, including the economic, social, public relations, etc. One of the groups with an extremely high risk was represented by the group of elderly people. The institutionalized elderly, although isolated to a certain extent, had an increased risk, the centers becoming foci of infection where the virus spread rapidly. All these aspects, to which is added the lack of knowledge of the long-term effects of getting sick with COVID-19, nor of the effects of the vaccine, have demanded the maximum of people's adaptive capacities, requiring the formation of new skills and lifestyles that will allow them to face the challenges of the pandemic. Objective: based on previous research carried out by us in 2021, the long-term effects of counseling the elderly in reducing reactive anxiety to the dangerousness of the COVID-19 virus were followed. Methodology: the Hamilton Anxiety Scale was used, applied to 12 elderly people from the Care Center for the elderly, Arad. Main results: the results showed in the first research an obvious decrease in anxiety following counseling. The application of the same scale after one year reveals a slow progressive decrease in anxiety as a result of counseling in which new techniques for managing stressful situations were acquired and the emphasis was placed on acquiring increased skills to adapt to stressful situations. General conclusion: the counseling system used has proven its effectiveness in the long term, but new future research is needed, on an increased number of subjects, to be able to be implemented in the elderly centers as a method of preventing the increase of anxiety in crisis situations.

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