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Aging and Depression

Depression is not a normal part of aging. Although older adults may experience many losses in later life (changes in health status, deaths and relocations of loved ones), the majority of elders cope with these losses without becoming clinically depressed.
Depression is strikingly prevalent among older people affecting as many as 25% of older adults and nearly 40% of those in nursing or hospital care. It can lead to disability, premature death and worsen symptoms of other physical illnesses. It also has profound negative effects on quality of life. Depression, if left untreated, may cause older individuals to give up - or worse.
Depression is also one of the hidden disorders of geriatrics. Many older adults, their physicians, and caregivers, whether consciously or unconsciously, do believe that depression is normal in older adults. Depression often goes undetected because patients do not report their symptoms, and when they do, they are often misinterpreted as symptoms of other medical illnesses. Despite the pervasivemess of depression in elders and the existence of effective treatment, a substantial number receive either no treatment or inadequate treatment.
Don't ignore depression. If you have questions about depression in yourself or someone else, please call your physician or a licensed mental health professional who will assist you with referrals for evaluation and treatment.

Proper Time and Frequency of Anointing

The proper time for anointing is now "serioius illness" rather than "danger of death." It is not to be restricted to those who are dying; it is clearly identified as a sacrament for those who are wrestling with serious illess.
"Great care and concern should be taken to see that those of the faithful whose health is seriously impaired by sickness or old age receive the sacrament" (8).
The right time is at the beginning of serious illness, (For instance, when a frail, elderly person is first diagnosed with pneumonia, not two weeks later when they are failing and semi-comatose.)
This will help to avoid "the wrongful practice of delaying the reception of the sacrament" (13). Thus the celebration can take place "while the sick person is capable of active participation" (99).
The sacrament can be repeated in case of new need:

• when the sick perosn recovers after being anointed and, at a later time, becomes sick again (9).
• when during the same illness the condition of the sick person becomes more serious (102)

Who Should Be Anointed

Those who are dangerously ill due to sickness or old age (8).

Seriously ill candidates for surgery (10)

Elderly persons in weak condition although no dangerous illness is present (11)

Sick children "if they have sufficient use of reason to be comforted by this sacrament" (9)

May be given to an unconscious or demented person "if, as Christian believers, they would have asked for it were they in control of their faculties" (14)

May be given to those determined to be suffering from serious mental illness (53)

Viaticum
Sacrament for the Dying

Vatican II replaced anointing with viaticum as the sacrament proper to the dying Christian. This reiterates the traditional understanding of viaticum as the sacrament for the dying (27).
As the Sacrament of Christ's Passover the Eucharist should always be the last sacrament of the earthly journey, the "viaticum" for "passing over" to eternal life (CC1517).