By
Ovuoke Godswill Eruotor
The Nigerian Baptist Theological Seminary, Ogbomoso
Email: esvoke@yahoo.co.uk
Phone: 08163770083
ABSTRACT
This paper explores Pastoral Care Intervention to Depression Among Retired Civil Servants. Retirement is a time for civil servants to disengage from active work or employment, and attaining retirement as a civil servant could be considered a milestone achievement. Yet, it introduces the retiree into a new phase of life with challenges due to uncertainty, anxiety, self-doubt, and unpreparedness, which, if not well handled, can result in depression. Depression is an illness that affects the state of mind of different occupations and professions at some moment in their life due to failure to deal with life challenges effectively. This paper postulates that pastoral care intervention applied can heal, guide, reconcile, educate, and sustain the problem of depression appropriately because pastoral counselling offers exposure and understanding that retired civil servants need to handle depression, especially in a more profound knowledge that comes from the pastoral caregiver to aid civil servants live and enjoy their full potential at retirement. Methodology: The descriptive method is employed, citing other scholars’ views in the discussion that follows. The paper argues that factors like reduced social involvement, lack of financial counsel, inability to adjust to the new status, the problem of housing, and political instability promote socio-economy related depression among retired civil servants. The paper also asserts that socio-economy related depression affects retired civil servants and concludes that the understanding of the effects and factors promoting this problem among retired civil servants will help position the pastoral caregiver to approach the situation properly to improve the quality of life at retirement.
Key Words:
Pastoral Care Intervention, Depression, Retired Civil Servants
Introduction
Depression is a mental illness that affects people of different occupations and professions, including retired civil servants. The writer wishes to limit this paper to socio-economy related depression among retired civil servants in Nigeria. Retirement fears are associated with emotional, psychological, and financial challenges that require workers to prepare well ahead of time. However, the writer observed that some workers prepare for it while others do not. Those who prepare for retirement are affected by irregular payment of monthly pensions, non-payment of gratuity, insecurity, health constraints, political instability, and economic unpredictability. While those who are not prepared for it face challenges such as the inability to manage a meager monthly income, getting a suitable residential house, and reduced social involvement.
Social activities which promote interpersonal relationships between two or more people that may range from brief to lasting one is also affected. This regular interaction and other types of social commitment and interpersonal relationships are reduced at retirement, which can create loneliness and give room for depression. The lack of ability to handle these challenges associated with decisions on life arrangements at retirement can lead to depression. The motivation for this paper is to use pastoral care intervention to address socio-economy related depression among retired civil servants to help them gain stability that encourages self-actualization at retirement. Hence this paper explores the concept and nature of pastoral care, the concept of depression, factors promoting socio-economy related depression among retired civil servants, the effects of socio-economy related depression among retired civil servants, and pastoral care intervention for retired civil servants with depression.
