Social Support and Mental Health Status among Community Dwelling Elderly

Ageing process is multi-disciplinary in nature, because it is a result of complex phenomena in connection with the physiological, psychological, and social.The problems of aged are manifold.Moreover these problems vary from individual to individual and culture to culture but there are certain common problems experienced by most of the aged person across culture and geographical location.These have been categorized as biological, social, economic and psychological problems.These problems are interdependent and interactive in nature the individual often doesn't know how to handle the situation and may end up with disturbed mental health.This study is an attempt to examine the social support and mental health status among community dwelling elderly of Ranga Reddy district of Telangana state.Mental health was assessed by using "Mental Health Inventory" by Jagadish and Srivastava (1983).Social support was assessed by using social support inventory by Jamuna.D & Ramamurti (1991).For purposes of the present study, a total sample of 120 was taken out of which 60 were (60+ years) male and 60 were (60+ years) female community dwelling elderly.Results reveals there was a significant difference in social support and mental health status among community dwelling elderly with respect to gender and locality , there were -0.59 negative correlations are seen between social support and mental health status among community dwelling elderly.The implications were drawn based on the findings.