Investigation of state anxiety and trait anxiety levels of elderly in the pandemic period from a social work perspective

Old age is a period in which individuals experience biological, psychological and social problems and can cause anxiety in individuals. Negative situations that appear suddenly, such as a crisis, affect this level of anxiety. With this study, to measure the state and trait anxiety levels of the elderly during the Covid-19 pandemic, which is described as a crisis; It is aimed to interpret the results from the perspective of the crisis intervention approach and to make appropriate suggestions. Since the survey model, one of the quantitative research methods, was used in the research, the survey technique was used as a data collection tool. The sample of the study consisted of 200 individuals aged 65 and over living in Hendek district. In the selection of the sample, since face-to-face interviews with elderly individuals were limited during the pandemic period, the convenience sampling method was used. The collected data were analyzed by the researcher using the SPSS 25 program, using analyzes such as frequency, t-test, anova, post hoc and Pearson correlation. In addition, skewness and kurtosis values were examined to determine the normal distribution of the data. As a result of the analysis, the state and trait anxiety levels of women are higher than men; The state and trait anxiety levels of the elderly over the age of 85 are higher than the young elderly and the elderly; state and trait anxiety levels of the elderly living alone are higher than the others; the state and trait anxiety levels of the elderly with poor economic status are higher than the others; Elderly people with loneliness and social isolation problems have higher levels of state and trait anxiety compared to others; It was found that there was a significant difference between the state and trait anxiety levels of the elderly according to the type of support needed. With the interpretation of the research findings, it has been suggested that crisis intervention units can be established by experts in order to be able to intervene in a short time and effectively in possible crisis situations that the elderly may encounter, and psycho-social action plans at micro, mezzo and macro levels can be prepared by this unit.