This is how older adults live the loss of a pet: This is advised by a psychologist
Pets can become part of the family thanks to the bond established by being close to them. However, the loss of pets can also be a great pain, especially for older adults.
Research, over time, has shown that having pets can have many health benefits, such as the regulation of blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides, due to the increase in physical activity exercised by responsible caregivers.
As well as helping, you also have to provide them with well-being, as they can become stressed when perceiving complicated situations in their environment such as occurs in the pandemic. Given this, it is prudent to take them to open places, maintain their hygiene and provide them with entertainment tools.
This is how mourning for pets is
Losing a pet is a very difficult time for older adults, which can be accompanied by grief, denial, anger, and guilt. But it is likely that over time these emotions will gradually become milder, highlights the specialized portal 65 Y MĂĄs.Â
You have to be aware that not all processes are the same and that you have to be patient to heal, as there is a season of mourning that is exercised out of respect for an animal to whom you had affection, which should not be a reason for shame.
To help seniors cope with pain, it is good to give them the opportunity to talk, tell stories about their pets, plan visits, or choose places to stay where they can have contact with animals.
How to help them
Helping older adults to overcome the loss of their pets is easier if there is an act of honor to memory and pain. The psychologist Meredith Resnick recommends, through an article published in Psychology Today, writing about what happened.
Actions such as compiling the favorite photos of the affected person for a portrait with the animal and using digital tools to create audiovisual materials with music in the form of tribute are also useful.
He also suggests that they create a memory box, so that they can write the memories and keep them in a special way. There they will have access to them whenever they want or need to overcome this difficult stage.
