After retirement, the lives of many people change rapidly and dramatically. Most people begin to feel useless, lonely, and socially isolated. Many older people strive for opportunities to show their unrealized abilities, and trying to help other people might be a great way to do that. Volunteering may become their incentive to continue self-development and overcome age restrictions. It can be an essential component of their socialization and improvement of the self-esteem for older people, for the strengthening of their physical and mental health and stress-resistance. Volunteering is one of the best ways to combat the loss of social value, as it makes the elderly people feel needed, helps with maintaining social skills and improves their psychological health.
Volunteering is the best way to break the stereotype of older people’s perception as a burden for society. When retirement changes the social environment of a person, there is a break in many social ties. In my opinion, this is a significant problem because the loss of social activity often results in loneliness and depression. According to Brown and Okun, a person does not feel that they belong to a community of citizens who benefit society (171). The elderly themselves often do not know how to use their potential for public and personal benefit. Therefore, for them, participation in volunteering becomes something more than just leisure time spending.
From the perspective of a comprehensive approach to the re-socialization of the elderly, volunteering is an ideal option. Researchers note that it combines the realization of unclaimed knowledge and skills of a person and the desire for a socially active life. It also fulfills their needs for communication, education, restoration of lost social ties, and the acquisition of new ones (Brown and Okun 173). Based on my personal experience of participating in volunteer projects, I can say that volunteers, while doing the necessary work, can at the same time meet their own social needs. For an older adult, communication with clients of a volunteer organization is an opportunity to lead an exciting social life.
Volunteering improves mental health and can have a positive impact on a person. Incredibly, helping others can improve the mood more than if they did something for themselves. The biological mechanisms by which altruism can enhance psychological health have been identified. Performing actions aimed at helping others encourages the body to release dopamine, which provides a good mood. In some cases, volunteering can help reduce the symptoms of depression. According to Brown and Okun, helping others can ease the impact of daily stress (Brown and Okun 170). Volunteers also begin to adapt more quickly to different life situations. It was helpful to learn that selfless help to others increases stress resistance and improves a person’s mental and emotional state.
Volunteering is a way for older citizens not to reduce their social activity after retirement, realize and apply their knowledge, skills, and experience to live for others’ benefit. Even such severe reasons as limited mobility, disability, and old age are not an obstacle to active participation in society’s charitable life. People who start to help others find that it helps them psychologically – it allows them to feel their importance. For some, this type of activity restores their self-confidence. Therefore, for a lonely older person, volunteer work is ideal moral support and an excellent way to make up for the lack of communication.
Work Cited
Brown, Stephanie, and Morris Okun. “The Resilience Handbook: Approaches to Stress and
Trauma.” Using the Caregiver System Model to Explain the Resilience-Related Benefits Older Adults Derive from Volunteering, edited by Martha Kent et al., Arizona State University, 2014, pp. 169 – 182.