
In this episode, Dr. Rena Malik, MD sits down with Neelam Brar to discuss the importance of senior mental health and strategies for improving well-being in later life. They break down barriers to care, share practical tips for staying engaged and purposeful, and highlight why aging should be embraced as a privilege.
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Neelam Brar
I'm not a thera, just a really concerned daughter. Curiosity, they say, is like one of the best ways to stay young. Like keep learning, keep staying engaged. I think aging is something that we should really look at as a privilege, not a curse. If you want to stay healthy and you want to push away disease, like having a really sound mental health can have a major impact. The idea of just stopping isn't healthy. Your mind needs to feel engaged. Your soul needs to feel purpose and passion.
Dr. Rena Malik
Yeah.
Neelam Brar
And you've got to find something you're really excited about. Something bigger than you. That's how you get out of your thoughts and actions.
Podcast Host
Did you know that 2/3 of seniors in the United States don't receive the mental health care they need? 2/3. And if you ignore your mental health, it can make you nearly 50 times more likely to face other serious illnesses. Welcome back to The Rena Malik, M.D. podcast, your trusted guide for leveling up your health, sex life and relationships with evidence based based tools. Today we're diving into senior mental health with Neelam Brar, Founder and CEO of Total Life, a platform designed to make mental health care accessible for older adults. We'll explore why mental health is so neglected, bust common myths about seniors and therapy, and share concrete steps you and your loved ones can take to foster joy and purpose in later life. This is a conversation every family needs to hear.
Dr. Rena Malik
Thank you so much for joining us today.
Neelam Brar
Thank you for having me So I.
Dr. Rena Malik
Understand you came from a finance background. Right. And decided to like, leave a very successful entrepreneur like co working space and went into taking care of Silver Tech, essentially of. Of elderly people and mental health. Now, how did that happen for you?
Neelam Brar
There's a few different events that happened that led up to that decision. The first one I'd say is, you know, when I was in investment banking, I was working in real estate investment banking for a long time and dealing with, working with a lot of the senior living companies. And I met the CEO Ventas when I was 25, and I remember her saying, like, whatever you do in your career, like, the boomers are going to retire. I thought, interesting. And I was still 25. And so I just kind of brushed it off, but it stayed with me. And then later when I ran for politics in Canada, I spent a lot of time visiting senior homes and realizing there was just a major disparity between the conditions when folks had a lot of resources and the conditions when folks had a lot less resources. And that really didn't sit well with me. And then Covid hit and I moved back in with my parents to be close to family. And my mom ended up dealing with a really major and traumatic surgery, which led to several readmissions. And she just lost her quality of life significantly. She was really depressed, and that took a toll on her recovery, on the family's condition. And it just had a lot of impact that I thought could have avoided had they actually made mental health part of the care plan at, at discharge. And so I remember sitting in the hospital a third readmission, just talking to the nurses, you know, and asking them, like, why, why is mental health? You gave her a nutritionist, you gave her home health for changing the wounds and stuff, but you didn't really do a mental health assessment.
Podcast Host
Yeah.
Neelam Brar
And I remember her responding with like, yeah, it's not part of our care plan because we don't have the resources. It's not reliable, and we can't, we can't do it. And that's when I went home that day and I just started looking online and realized, like, there's this massive population that obviously as you age physically, your body, you know, changes. You might get a new condition, but you shouldn't be kind of left alone to navigate all of that. It's really difficult to change your habits and behaviors and how you react to moments of challenges, especially as they start mounting. And so we started to like this mission to support elderly mental health through those major turning point, whether it's a New diagnosis, loss of a loved one, general depression, anxiety that comes with aging. And there's just so much opportunity to improve outcomes. On the health side, we know the comorbidities with mental health and chronic diseases are really high, and yet we still don't do a good enough job asking, like, people how they're doing.
Dr. Rena Malik
Yeah, it's so true. And, you know, the reality is that oftentimes as people age, they get more and more issues. And so you're so focused on fixing the medicine that you're not focusing on fixing the total, like the total human, which includes their mental health. And I think for the aging. I take care of a lot of elderly patients, and I feel like the hardest thing for them is, like, dealing with. They still feel young inside. They feel in their brains, they feel young, they feel energetic. They want to be the person they used to be, and they can't. And there's this, like, severe loss of feeling, like they've. They've lost who they were. And they also feel like they can't ask for help. It's really a challenging time. So I think it's wonderful that you do that. What are some tips that you have for elderly people who are facing this, who, you know, obviously have challenges like chronic pain and other issues, like how can they find the help they need? Obviously there's services that you provide, but in general, what are things that you can tell people that you've learned throughout being in this space?
Neelam Brar
Yeah, it's. It's been really eye opening. I'm not a therapist. I'm just a really kind, concerned daughter.
Dr. Rena Malik
Yeah.
Neelam Brar
And what is different about mom and dad's generation, even grandpa grandparents, is that they're. They're very much like, just like, get the work done, move forward. They were providers, they took care of us, they brought us in. The boomers are really strong. Right. But they do respect. And when doctor says, you know, you should try this, they're more willing to try it. There's that level of just, like, support and respect for doctors. You know, we still have patients that get ready for their appointment. You know, they do.
Dr. Rena Malik
They get dressed, you dress professionally. Yeah.
Neelam Brar
That's been interesting because when we. When we work with primary care and they. And the doctor actually refers after doing a PHQ9, the adherence to getting support is high. I think there's a myth out there that older adults might not want therapy or take therapy because it's stigma against mental health, which has really been broken with the younger generation. I actually think that it's not about Stigma. I think it's about education and awareness. A lot of older adults don't even realize that Medicare covers their therapy. So if somebody's sitting at home with an original Medicaid card and they have a Medigap plan, they might be fully covered. Total life. And that in itself is a reason to say, like, why not just try something different that maybe will help you get out of whatever that rut is, Right? Because, like, a lot of older adults are also isolated and lonely. And so you start believing your own thoughts, and nobody's checking you and saying, no, no, no, that's. There's better ways to kind of move forward. Future is bright. There's a lot to still be grateful for. And I think a licensed professional can have a huge impact on just reframing the mindset, thinking about why, you know, historically you've done things a certain way and changing those patterns going forward.
Dr. Rena Malik
Yeah, absolutely. I think a lot of it comes from, like, positive mindset and sort of like, being. Being open to, like, like, as you said, just being open to trying therapy or trying something. And I.
Neelam Brar
When I ask patients about it, I.
Dr. Rena Malik
Find that they are open to it. They want to have help, and they're open. Do you, like, what's a. What's a thing that you would tell, like, our seniors listening? Like, what is something they can do today that can help them sort of. Sort of get into that mindset of like, yes, I can get better and I can get help.
Neelam Brar
I think it's like micro actions every day, right? You wake up, they say, like, making your bed makes you feel a sense of accomplishment. The first thing you do is something you finished. I think, like, starting something new can feel a little bit scary. But honestly, there's nothing better than just taking that first step. You know, we make it really easy for folks to call us, and their appointments are booked within minutes. We verify their insurance to make sure there's peace of mind around cost, and we can get folks in with. Into a session within seven days. Changing your mindset, eating better, exercising, moving. You know, they say motion is emotion, right? So I think the first step is to just move more, get better social connections. You've got to get out there and interact. If your friends are not making you happy, find new friends, start new hobbies. We center a lot of our wellness programs around the five pillars of longevity, which is like sleep, nutrition, exercise, social connections, and of course, mental health. And on the mental health side, curiosity, they say, is one of the best ways to stay young. Keep learning, keep staying engaged. I think the idea of retirement is really dated and wasn't a good idea. If you're doing strenuous labor work that eventually you can't do that, that makes sense. Retire. But the idea of just stopping isn't healthy. Your mind needs to feel engaged. Your soul needs to feel purpose and passion.
Dr. Rena Malik
Yeah.
Neelam Brar
And you've got to find something you're really excited about, something bigger than you. That's how you get out of your thoughts and actions.
Dr. Rena Malik
I think there's this huge stigma about people needing to slow down and. And like, just do less.
Neelam Brar
And I'm like, what?
Dr. Rena Malik
For me, I think about it myself. I was like, what am I gonna do? Like, yeah, I'll have hobbies. But I feel like I want. I like working and I enjoy it. And like, if that's something you enjoy, you should continue doing that or do something that brings you joy. And I see that a lot where, like, people like seniors will get into the habit of doing, like, the same. They'll do a couple things, but most of the day is spent, like, watching TV or just like, passing the time. And it just like, they kind of like move in space. They're not really. There's no connection to the world around them.
Neelam Brar
Yeah. It's so important. Like, we see some of our folks that have done therapy with Total Life and now are active in our wellness programs, and it's just a night and day shift in their entire attitude for, like, taking better care of themselves and realizing there's still like, a lot more excitement in the road ahead. I think aging is something that we should really look at as a privilege, not a curse. Right. Like, there is something amazing about reaching a certain point in life where you've learned all of this stuff and you have all of these amazing experiences, and what are you going to do with that? What does the next 10 years look like? One of our investors is Alan Patrick off of Primetime, and he recently got married. And he's like in his late 70s, early 80s. And so he basically told his wife, you know, I'm going to celebrate my 15th year anniversary with you. He knows he's going to live to 105. He's going to make that happen. Right. And so I think, I think just having goals.
Podcast Host
Yeah.
Neelam Brar
Something to look forward to. I think at any age is a very important thing. When we are in school, we have the next grade to think about every year. But when you kind of get into the adult world, you look forward to marriage, maybe kids. Some people don't do that. And so it's like, what are your goals and what are your priorities and things you're going to look forward to and feel good once you achieve them?
Dr. Rena Malik
Yeah.
Neelam Brar
Then you gotta reset them again and again. Right. It's literally building that pattern for your mind to, like, look forward to something.
Dr. Rena Malik
The other thing that I've found that helps is like sort of different cognitive activities, like puzzling or games or as you mentioned, learning new skills. I think for sometimes. Sometimes for like, for my parents, for example, I think they can feel overwhelming. It's like, oh, well, I gotta learn this new task. And it seems like a lot. And I'm like, I've learned so much in my life. Like, so how do you have help people get over that sort of fear?
Neelam Brar
Like, it's sometimes that is rooted in the anxiety of, like, the unknown. And as you get older, some of those feelings that you might have learned how to cope with when you were younger start to amplify. And I think it's coming back to just, you know, reframing those thoughts and taking things one piece at a time and approaching them with curiosity rather than stress or anxiety. It's not easy to learn new things. Even, like sometimes with all of the changes in AI it feels like a fire hose of information coming at us. Our parents went from. If you think about it, our parents went from the typewriter to now AI.
Dr. Rena Malik
It's crazy.
Neelam Brar
That is insane.
State Farm Announcer
Right?
Dr. Rena Malik
Right.
Neelam Brar
And like, I remember my dad once was. Didn't. I think he didn't really fully understand what the cloud was, and so he thought his files were like on the other on.
Dr. Rena Malik
On the computer.
Neelam Brar
Yeah, yeah. And he just couldn't understand that they, they would show up on this computer. And I thought that was really interesting. We take some of that for granted. It just kind of happens. And we're like, okay, but when you gotta try to figure out how it works.
Dr. Rena Malik
Yeah.
Neelam Brar
It can be a bit daunting.
Dr. Rena Malik
Yeah. Well, I think we've all been on one side of it where either you're asking someone younger for help or you're the one giving the help. And you're like, wait, this is so simple. Like, I'll help my dad with something. It'll be like, take me one second. He's like, can you just help me? It'll take you one second. I'm like, of course. And this took me like five hours.
Neelam Brar
Yeah. You know what I mean?
Podcast Host
Yeah.
Dr. Rena Malik
It's just such a. It's a different.
Neelam Brar
I mean, if your kid's still aging parents, you're going to be tech Support for sure.
Dr. Rena Malik
Yeah.
Neelam Brar
You're going to be hopefully like, you know, the, the adults in the room eventually. Right. Because parents start building habits that you need to break. Like, my mom is on Facebook for too many hours every day. Like, we need to cut the Facebook time down.
Dr. Rena Malik
But it's also how they connect with their peers.
Neelam Brar
True. Like, I think like there's, there's just, especially with some of the fraud and abuse that's happening. Boomers have money and. Oh yeah, they're taking advantage of criminals. Are them. And so I think just if you're listening to this, like this Thanksgiving, spend time educating and informing your parents about some of the fraud and schemes that are happening out there because they're getting more and more real.
Dr. Rena Malik
Yes. I have a family friend, someone called, it sounded like her son or from her son's phone number saying, we have your son pay us $14,000 and we'll give him the same phone number. So she thought it was real.
Neelam Brar
Yeah.
Dr. Rena Malik
It wasn't. And then somehow she called him and he picked up and like, I'm fine. And like she figured out that it wasn't her son that was calling, but it was like very real and very scary. That's.
Podcast Host
Yeah.
Neelam Brar
I mean it's. They're just going to get more and more real. And I don't think we don't have enough infrastructure set up to educate and save, save safely, keep people away from harm. So we've got to really, as a family, come around. And even friends, if you have neighbors that live alone, like, it's so important to just engage and just be aware of everybody. I remember in New York, I used summer, I lived in a five floor walk up. There was an older lady that lived next to me and every day I'd see her slowly walking up the stairs. And I once said to her, I said, you know, do you need help with the groceries or anything? She's like, no, this is how I stay young. Right. Like, she was moving and she wanted to be independent. Right. But also it's important to engage those community members in your, in your vicinity.
Dr. Rena Malik
Yeah. I do think the boomer generation did a really great job of like communicating with each other, connecting. I actually worry about our generation and younger, like, because we don't talk, we don't like, we're very individualized. We don't like, talk to each other very much. And yeah, so it is true.
Neelam Brar
My sister and I were joking. I think mom and dad have a more active social life than we do. We're Indian. Right. So they still invite 400 people to a party.
Dr. Rena Malik
Yeah, I'm like 400 people. But like every weekend they have something to do, which is great and I wish everyone had that. Yeah.
Neelam Brar
But it is said like we, we spend a lot of time in senior care homes and providing support to elders that might be reliant on assisted living or home health and nursing and the percentage of folks that don't get a visitor in a month.
Dr. Rena Malik
I know, I know.
Neelam Brar
I mean you see it as a doctor too, right?
Dr. Rena Malik
Well, my husband worked in rehab and like rehab, subacute rehabs. And he saw so many people where they never got this.
Neelam Brar
Yeah.
Dr. Rena Malik
And it was so sad.
Neelam Brar
Yeah. And if you think about it, right, like punishment is solitary confinement. That's a form of punishment. Like if you're doing that, if you're letting that happen to yourself, that's not good.
Podcast Host
Right.
Neelam Brar
Like you've got to engage in the local community center if you're feeling like too much anxiety about starting those steps because stepping out can be hard, especially when you're not used to it. That's where I think therapy can have a huge impact because you can speak to somebody who's going to help you think about all of the, all of the negative thoughts and get rid of them and reframe them. And for somebody who's a skeptical person, it might feel like, oh, how does that really help me? It can have a major impact on your, on your like overall health and wellness and awareness, self awareness. And I think those tools, even for me sometimes I look at certain evidence based exercises, it can shift your mind so much when you just think about, you know, all of the different ways you come to conclusions and if you slowly unpack those, that process and you insert different questions or different triggers, you can end up at a totally different conclusion.
Dr. Rena Malik
Right.
Neelam Brar
Like you can actually break down your thoughts.
Podcast Host
Yes.
Dr. Rena Malik
And so your, your service, Total Life is a virtual mental health service that also helps seniors connect to in life mental health care. Right.
Podcast Host
Is that right?
Neelam Brar
Yeah. Not, you know, online support can be extremely valuable and impactful for folks with early to mid depression. But if you're, if you're more clinically severe on like bipolar schizophrenia, dementia like then in person is required and so they will help you connect with a local resource. But reality is if you want to stay healthy and you want to push away disease, like having a really sound mental health can have a major impact on your overall health and wellness. Studies now show that like untreated depression has a 60% higher likelihood of presenting dementia, which is pretty major, like really high acceleration of musculoskeletal diseases, basically everything. And I think really the reality is, if you're not happy, your body's not releasing all those great chemicals and as a result, you're not rejuvenating, you're not restoring and you're deteriorating and it's going to impact all of your. All of your health.
Dr. Rena Malik
So, yeah, and I used to be a skeptic, so, I mean, I know this number. So about 66%, or 2/3 seniors don't get mental health care that they need, and that means that they're going to be 48 times more likely to have another illness. And I've seen it so much where a lot of conditions are interconnected with your mental health. Right. They may not be directly, like, caused by it, but as your mental health worsens, they worsen. Or sometimes they literally are entirely connected to your traumas or your mental health or other things. And so I've seen where, like, if someone treats their mental health, their other conditions get so much more.
Neelam Brar
Yeah.
Dr. Rena Malik
And I think that's a real reason, like, if I can't convince you to do it because you think mental health is not that, like, not that important. Like, well, it'll make you feel better in other ways for your overall body.
Neelam Brar
It has. And I think sometimes we, by saying mental health, it feels like this big, unattainable thing. But the reality is we're talking about making you happy again, Right. Making you fulfilled, making life feel purposeful and joyful, giving you a reason to get out of bed. Right. It doesn't have to be big. It's actually attainable. It's available to all of us. Like, our mind is powerful, and if we actually learn how to control it better, we can help it work for us rather than the other way around. Like, we all sometimes want to procrastinate or put things aside, but if you change that mind, shift to saying, like, I'm really excited about that thing. I was procrastinating. You can trick your mind into liking things.
Dr. Rena Malik
Yes, you absolutely can. Which is so cool. Right. Like, I would do this when I would go on call, I would say, you know, of course, going on call or having to go in the middle of the night, you have a negative reaction initially. But I'd say, I get to go take care of my patients. I get to go do this. I'm so lucky. And so I have to tell myself that. And eventually it just became like, I'm like, I'm grateful that I get to do this.
Neelam Brar
Yeah.
Dr. Rena Malik
And I Think what are. You obviously have, like, an abundance of patients going through your. Through your. Through total life. What benefits are you seeing in these patients? Like, what outcomes have you tracked and seen?
Neelam Brar
Yeah. So the key scale that we're tracking is a PHQ9. And folks typically are.
Dr. Rena Malik
Let our audience know what that is.
Neelam Brar
Oh, phq9. It's nine questions that have become kind of the standard litmus test of mental health. There are questions around, you know, how you feel about yourself, your activities, your mood, some questions around nutrition and other things. Basically, it's like an assessment on how you're doing. And you want to be under 5, definitely under 10 on that score. And if you're constantly above those numbers, it's time to seek some support. And there's no judgment on seeking support, and you don't actually need a doctor's referral, so Medicare has made it easy for people to get that support. You don't have to go speak about this to your doctor. You can call directly to our Number, which is 1-800-567-LIFE, and. Or sign up online. And, like, nobody needs to know that you're seeking that support. We do have patients that, like, are still a little bit worried about what people think. It's private, HIPAA compliant, and you get, you know, connected to a licensed counselor. So I think that there is. There's just a lot of opportunity to feel a little bit better and try something. So that's the PHQ9. We see about a 30% improvement within six sessions.
Dr. Rena Malik
That's great.
Podcast Host
Yeah.
Neelam Brar
So that means folks are feeling more joyful, they're stepping out again. They're feeling like. I think the concept of feeling seen and heard is something that is so valuable and so underutilized. Right. If somebody suddenly feels like there's somebody making me accountable. Right. I've committed to the therapist that today I'm gonna go, you know, walk around. I'm gonna go to the local community center. I'm gonna get, you know, I'm not gonna assume everybody doesn't like me. I'm gonna. I'm gonna. I'm gonna assume that they're just busy, and I'm gonna go make that effort. Right. It's reframing those, like, thoughts that you put in your mind that dissuade you from doing things that you need to be doing. Even medication adherence. Right. If you're depressed and you're high anxiety, you're gonna be more likely to, you know, not be consistent with your medication.
Dr. Rena Malik
Yeah.
Neelam Brar
You're more likely to go do unplanned admissions in the hospital.
Dr. Rena Malik
Right.
Neelam Brar
So for the entire healthcare system, talking about mental health shouldn't be an afterthought, it should be actually the first step.
Dr. Rena Malik
Do you track any other health outcomes like in terms of like their overall wellness? If there are some mark, you know, qualified validated questionnaires that look at that, anything like that.
Neelam Brar
Right now we're mainly on the page Q9. We're starting to with partnerships have access to longer term data on overall outcomes and utilization. And so we're just getting access to that information. Right. Because otherwise if a patient comes and works with us, feels better and leaves, we don't know what happened next.
Dr. Rena Malik
Right, right. And we're at the health conference. So are you seeing a use of AI in this space for helping the elderly patients?
Neelam Brar
Yeah, thanks for asking. Actually we, we are starting pilots with rai, which is called Lilly and so Lilly calls patients, engages schedules and also provides micro interventions on supporting your five pillars. Right. So helping you with nutrition advice or ideas. I've only got five things in my fridge, Lily. What should I make with it? Right, yeah. Sleep tips, conversation around just companionship when needed, but really with the goal of improving your habits using evidence based training. So Lily is kind of like that friend that also has a lot of training. Not the friend that's going to give you bad advice, hopefully with the friend that actually can kind of look back unbiased and think about like what's right for you, especially with your medical information. And so really excited about Lilly to be launched. And our goal is that Lilly also supports memory. Right. So when you do have more time and you want to talk about different reflections or memories, those memories would be written down in a book for you eventually and you could start creating a memoir to leave behind with your kids. And so I think there's just so much opportunity for AI to be a companion. But I 100% believe that there needs to be a human in the loop and in this in like a medical professional needs to be the escalation. Right. I've been really cautious in watching how AI has been involving and on the are now taking to step in because in order to be good at improving healthcare using AI, you still need a strong roster of providers.
Dr. Rena Malik
Yeah.
Neelam Brar
I think companies that are AI only want to really look out at like because what happens when the AI breaks or.
Podcast Host
Absolutely.
Dr. Rena Malik
We've seen especially in the hip in the mental health space where it's actually been negative. So there's been really negative outcomes because AI is very appeasing to what you think yeah.
Neelam Brar
And you can start really like, like mirroring your own thoughts and ultimately, like, I don't believe yet, AI should be used for therapy. I think there's always going to be room for a therapist and that human interaction. But the in between the session coaching. Right. Would be nice if you made a bunch of commitments to your therapist and then the next week you're saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll get to it. Like, imagine if somebody was just like daily like reminding you, checking in. Yeah, yeah.
Dr. Rena Malik
Well, thank you so much for what you do and thank you for joining us.
Neelam Brar
Thank you so much.
Podcast Host
Thank you guys so much for joining us on today's episode of the Rena Malik, MD podcast. If you are new here and you have not yet subscribed or followed the podcast and you enjoy this podcast, do me a solid favor. It is completely free and a zero cost way to support the podcast. Subscribe and if you're feeling extra genuine, leave a rating or review. And as always, I'm going to take care of yourself because you're worth it.
Title: The Quiet Mental Health Crisis Stealing Years From Our Seniors (And How to Fight Back)
Host: Dr. Rena Malik, MD
Guest: Neelam Brar, Founder & CEO of Total Life
Date: November 28, 2025
Theme:
This episode spotlights the severely overlooked mental health crisis among seniors, exploring why so many older adults miss out on essential psychological care, the cascading effects of this neglect on physical well-being, and practical strategies for families to nurture emotional and mental vitality in later life.
Transition from Finance to Senior Care:
Personal Motivation:
Alarming Statistics:
Overlooked in Medical Care:
Generational Attitudes:
Myth Busting:
Social Isolation:
Everyday Actions:
Micro-actions—e.g., making the bed, daily movements, trying new things—help boost confidence and happiness.
Total Life’s Five Pillars of Longevity: Sleep, nutrition, exercise, social connections, and mental health.
Quote:
“Curiosity, they say, is one of the best ways to stay young. Keep learning, keep staying engaged.” (Neelam Brar, 09:29)
Purpose and Passion:
The concept of retirement can be unhealthy if it means disengagement from life and passion.
Notable Story:
One investor (late 70s/early 80s) plans to celebrate his 15th anniversary with his new wife—a testament to the importance of having something to look forward to, regardless of age.
Learning in Later Life:
Cognitive activities like puzzles, games, or learning new tech can be daunting due to anxiety about the unknown.
Empathy for seniors navigating a world of rapid tech change (from typewriters to AI).
Quote:
“Our parents went from the typewriter to now AI. That is insane.” (Neelam Brar, 13:12)
Family’s Role:
Social Networks & Risks:
Platforms like Facebook serve as crucial social lifelines for seniors, but also expose them to scams.
Quote:
“Boomers have money…criminals are taking advantage of them.” (Neelam Brar, 14:21)
Family education is key—especially around holidays—on scam prevention.
Loneliness in Senior Care Facilities:
Role of Therapy:
Physical Health Tied to Mental Health:
Total Life Approach:
Uses PHQ-9 (Patient Health Questionnaire, 9 items) to assess mental health; a 30% improvement seen within six sessions.
Privacy is maintained—no doctor’s referral required, can self-refer and access support easily.
Quote:
“Feeling seen and heard is so valuable and so underutilized. If somebody suddenly feels like there’s somebody making me accountable...it’s reframing those thoughts.” (Neelam Brar, 22:51)
Medication Adherence:
“I think aging is something that we should really look at as a privilege, not a curse.” (Neelam Brar, 10:40 & recurring)
“If you're sitting at home with an original Medicare card and you have a Medigap plan, you might be fully covered...Why not just try something different that maybe will help you get out of whatever that rut is?” (Neelam Brar, 07:20)
“Punishment is solitary confinement. That's a form of punishment. If you're letting that happen to yourself, that's not good.” (Neelam Brar, 16:56)
“If you want to stay healthy and you want to push away disease, like having a really sound mental health can have a major impact.” (Neelam Brar, 18:18)
The episode stays empathetic yet pragmatic, focusing on empowering families and seniors with information and practical steps. The dialogue is warm, with both host and guest sharing relatable anecdotes, emphasizing that pursuing joy and mental fitness in old age is not only possible but vital.