XGBSHN3013: COVID-19 Pandemic and Psychosocial Impact on UK Elderly

This essay explores the psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the elderly population in the United Kingdom. It begins by defining COVID-19 and its origins, the age range and common health issues of the elderly, and provides statistics on the pandemic's impact both generally and specifically within the UK elderly population. The essay then defines psychosocial health, outlining its key components: mental, emotional, and social health. It details how the pandemic has negatively impacted each of these components for the elderly, leading to issues like increased anxiety, loneliness, and reduced social interaction. The essay concludes by summarizing the main points and offering recommendations to improve the quality of life for elderly individuals during and after the pandemic, emphasizing the importance of addressing mental, social, and emotional well-being. The essay is contributed by a student and available on Desklib with AI based tools.

Module: XGBSHN3013 Being Healthy in a Modern World
The Essay Title: Consider the psychosocial impact of the current COVID 19 Pandemic On The Daily Lives of the
Elderly Population in the United Kingdom.

Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
What is covid19 (and when did it start)?...........................................................................................2
What age range is elderly- and what are common health issues do they face?................................2
Statistics on covid19?........................................................................................................................2
Statistics of covd19 among elderly population the United Kingdom.................................................2
Defining psychosocial............................................................................................................................2
psychosocial health...........................................................................................................................2what components made psychosocial health?.................................................................................3
Ways covid19 have impacted elderly population in the UK from psychosocial perspective.................4
In short paragraph discuss how these ways may have impacted their quality of life........................4
Conclusion and recommendations........................................................................................................6
Summarise your main points.............................................................................................................6
Recommendations (quality of life)....................................................................................................6
References.............................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
Erikson maintained the set of personality which was further developed in a
predetermined order in which the eight stages of development on the psychological level
from the infancy to the adulthood stage. This theory was developed by Erikson which helps
in the sense of competence motivating the behaviour and actions of the people. This theory
consisted of eight stages which shows that the last two stages are more vulnerable.
What is covid19 (and when did it start)?
Covid19 are a large family of viruses which causes illness ranging different diseases that
are common cold and severe diseases. Coronavirus was spread in several strains which lead
to a mass outbreak and resulted in several casualties. Coronavirus disease 2019 is a novel
disease which is caused by a newly identified virus (Dubey et. al., 2020). This virus was
originated in December, 2019 from Wuhan, China. Afterwards the World Health
Organization declared pandemic on 11th March 2020.
What age range is elderly- and what are common health issues do they face?
The age range which is generally considered in the elderly section are people who are 65 and
older. These people are more prone to diseases due to the age factor, there are a range of
health issues that are faced by these people. Few such common health issues faced by them
are health diseases, osteoporosis, respiratory diseases, pneumonia, vision or hearing loss and
risk of some type of cancer.
Statistics on covid19?
The total cases that are reported in UK of Covid-19 are around 20 Million which was
considered as an extreme number of population like UK. The total death reported in UK were
also high as it ranged around 1,63,511 within a time span of 2 years. The Covid-19 outbreak
happened two times during the previous years which resulted in increased number of
casualties. These statistics is authentic as it is taken from the official website of the
government of UK. This data defines the summary of United Kingdom in the time of
pandemic situation.
Statistics of covd19 among elderly population the United Kingdom.
Elderly people were most impacted during the pandemic situation as the covid-19 outbreak
impacted them at different levels. It has been seen that most of the people that were impacted

by covid-19 was under the umbrella of elderly people (Groarke et. al., 2020). Out of the total
reported cases, around 52% cases were of elderly population of UK. Out of total death cases
reported in UK due to covid19 most of the people were above 65 of age.
Defining psychosocial
psychosocial health
This is a result of complex interaction that happens between the history of person and their
thoughts about and the interpretations of the past and what past means to the present. A
healthy mind and the content heart are just important for the prevention of disease and the
treatment process. The psychosocial health consists of various components that contribute to
the overall wellbeing of mental health.
what components made psychosocial health?
There are a range of components that are included in the psychosocial health of an individual.
These components are directly related with increasing the psychosocial health of an
individual. Few such components of psychosocial health are discussed below:
 Mental health- The thinking part of the process is considered as mental health which
consists of values and beliefs in life. Through this the person is able to relate to others
and further respond to the situations that exist in life. Mental health is considered as
one of the most crucial factor which contributes to the overall health prospects of the
individual.
 Emotional health- This is considered as the feeling part of the process and emotional
health. This includes a range of factors such as love, hate, anger and happiness of the
individual which contributes to the enhanced emotional health of a person. This is a
major component of the psychosocial health and directly deals with enhancing the
respective factor of the individual.
 Social health- This is the ability to create and further maintain healthy relationships
with people that an individual encounter during their lifetime. This is another major
component of psychosocial health which contributes to increased human interaction
and enhances the feeling. Through this the individual can recognize the importance of
social engagement during the lifetime. The social interactions play an important role
in delivering the psychosocial health of an individual.

Ways covid19 have impacted elderly population in the UK from
psychosocial perspective
Mental Health- This is considered as a major part of the psychosocial health and this gets
impacted due to several factors that exist in the environment. The mental health of an
individual plays an important role in deriving satisfaction in the individual. Recent Covid-19
outbreak resulted in several situations where the people were worried about the different
factors such as financial and non-financial aspects (Kwong et. al., 2021). The elderly people
got impacted as they faced several issues in the time of pandemic where they were unable to
meet the financial needs of the people. This impacted the mental health of people on some
terms which was not considered good for the psychosocial health of these people.
Emotional Health- The covid-19 outbreak resulted in several casualties which was impacted
the emotional health of people. The emotional health of people is dependent on the factor the
way an individual feel. During Covid-19 several people lost their lives and these people were
associated with some people. This resulted in emotional outbreak as many things got
unexpected and many young people lost their lives during this time. The psychosocial health
of elderly people was severely impacted as they lost several loved ones which directly
impacted the emotional health of these individuals.
Social Health- The social health of individual is dependent on the way that individual
interacts with the society. During Covid-19 situation, many people were required to isolate
themselves which resulted in the situation where the human interaction level decreased to
great extent. The isolation phase was essential as Covid-19 was highly transferable and
therefore the positive tested people were required to isolate themselves (Saha et. al., 2020).
The social health of elderly people got impacted as they were not able to interact with anyone
which resulted in situation where the social health of these people got impacted.
In short paragraph discuss how these ways may have impacted their quality of life
COVID-19 has changed the way we used to do our day to day activities, the pandemic
situation has added a range of barriers for normal people. The quality of life was severely
impacted by the Covid 19 outbreak where most of the people were exposed to the several

issues. The issues that were faced by the individuals were financial as well as non-financial
which impacted the ways in which people used to deal with the situations. The Covid-19
outbreak resulted in several new factors where the individuals were exposed to a range of
new challenges (Sherman et. al., 2021). The challenges impacted the way in which people
used to the deal with their day to day challenges. The quality of life of elderly people
decreased during the Covid-19 pandemic as they were required to stay indoor which
impacted the social life of these people. Loneliness refers to the unpleasant emotional
response which is further related with the isolation phase. This phase is described as a phase
which is further connected with the social life of the person. During the isolation phase, the
individual is more prone to the feelings of loneliness where there are more risks to
individuals.

Conclusion and recommendations
Summarise your main points
 It has been summarised that Covid-19 has impacted the quality of life of
people as there were several phases which led to the situation that the
psychosocial health of the individual got impacted.
 The psychosocial health of individuals is composed of several areas which
contributes to health of the individual. The components are mental health,
social health and emotional health. The psychological health of the individuals
is highly dependent on these factors.
Recommendations (quality of life)
 The quality of life can be increased by enhancing the mental health of the
individual which is derived from the range of factors that exist in the life of
human.
 The quality of life can be increased by evaluating the social health factor of
the individual as it is directly related with increasing the social interaction
which directly contributes to the quality of life.

References
Dubey, S., Biswas, P., Ghosh, R., Chatterjee, S., Dubey, M.J., Chatterjee, S., Lahiri, D. and
Lavie, C.J., 2020. Psychosocial impact of COVID-19. Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome:
Clinical Research & Reviews, 14(5), pp.779-788.
Groarke, J.M., Berry, E., Graham-Wisener, L., McKenna-Plumley, P.E., McGlinchey, E. and
Armour, C., 2020. Loneliness in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic: Cross-sectional
results from the COVID-19 Psychological Wellbeing Study. PloS one, 15(9), p.e0239698.
Kwong, A.S., Pearson, R.M., Adams, M.J., Northstone, K., Tilling, K., Smith, D., Fawns-
Ritchie, C., Bould, H., Warne, N., Zammit, S. and Gunnell, D.J., 2021. Mental health before
and during the COVID-19 pandemic in two longitudinal UK population cohorts. The British
Journal of Psychiatry, 218(6), pp.334-343.
Mackolil, J. and Mackolil, J., 2020. Addressing psychosocial problems associated with the
COVID-19 lockdown. Asian journal of psychiatry, 51, p.102156.
Saha, K., Torous, J., Caine, E.D. and De Choudhury, M., 2020. Psychosocial effects of the
COVID-19 pandemic: large-scale quasi-experimental study on social media. Journal of
medical internet research, 22(11), p.e22600.
Sherman, S.M., Smith, L.E., Sim, J., Amlôt, R., Cutts, M., Dasch, H., Rubin, G.J. and
Sevdalis, N., 2021. COVID-19 vaccination intention in the UK: results from the COVID-19
vaccination acceptability study (CoVAccS), a nationally representative cross-sectional
survey. Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 17(6), pp.1612-1621.