Symposia: Clinical Use of Religion and Spirituality in Geriatric Mental Health

January 20 - 23, Vizag Conventions, PM Palem, Visakhapatnam Theme : Bridging Minds… Connecting Generations Symposia Nisha Mani Pandey(1)*, Shailendra Mohan Tripathi(1), S.C. Tiwari(2), Religion and spirituality are the very significant aspects of one’s life; its relatedness with health issues is being explored and a matter of research. In the healthcare sector for care of older adults and for managing chronic and debilitating diseases, spirituality is getting more and more attention in the medical and mental healthcare of older adults all across the world(i,ii,iii). Some reports reveal that people get involved in religiosity with advancement in age(iv) and sometimes their spiritual stamina also get refined. However, proper startegy, determined appraoch and strength related to association, mechanisms, tools through which impact of religiosity and spirituality can be assessed on health across different section and segments of societies are yet to be explored. There is a need to develop evidence-based ideas and suggestions regarding aging, health, religion and spirituality; so that clinical application of the concepts could be deviced and claimed. This symposium would highlight i) the concept of religion and spirituality, particularly in the Indian Context ii) clinical use of religion and spirituality and iii) assessment and inervention of religiosity and spirituality. (i) Stanley, M. A. et al. (2011). Older adults’ preferences for religion/spirituality in treatment for anxiety and depression. Aging & Mental Health, 15, 334–343.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; (ii) Hodge, D. R., Horvath, V. E., Larkin, H. and Curl, A. L. (2012). Older adults’ spiritual needs in health care settings: a qualitative meta-synthesis. Research on Aging, 34, 131–155.CrossRefGoogle Scholar; (1) Dept of Geriatric Mental Health, King George’s Medical University UP Lucknow. * corresponding author; (2) Founder Head (Retd.), Dept of Geriatric Mental Health, King George’s Medical University UP Lucknow. (iii) Koenig, H. G., Perno, K. and Hamilton, T. (2017c). Integrating spirituality into outpatient practice in the adventist health system. Southern Medical Journal, 110, 1–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; (iv) https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-84905775551&origin=inward&txGid =7bc 9f398f1317ba530fd8d17ea24bb4d.