EFFECTIVENESS OF GROUP REMINISCENCE THERAPY ON DEPRESSION AMONG THE INSTITUTIONALIZED ELDERLY

The inevitable process of growing older is accompanied by a number of social, psychological, hormonal, and physical changes. The quality of life for the elderly is impacted by these changes. People experience mental distress as they become older due to social maladjustment as a result, they may go through a phase of depressive illness, which can develop into a multisystem disorder. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to assess the level of depression among the institutionalized elderly, to evaluate the effectiveness of group reminiscence therapy on depression among the institutionalized elderly and to find out the association between the selected demographic variables and the level of depression. Methods: The pre-experimental research design was employed by the researcher. Purposive sampling was used to conduct the study among 30 elderly residents of Lucknows Cheshire Old Age Home. In order to evaluate the degree of cognition, the data was obtained using the standardized Hindi version of the Mini-Mental Status Examination given by Tiwari, Tripathi, and Kumar.Yesavage, J. A., Brink, T. L., Rose, T. L., Lum, O., Huang, V., Adey, M., and Leirer, V. O. 30-point Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) was used to assess the level of severity of depression. Group Reminiscence Therapy was provided for eight consecutive days, with sessions lasting 45 minutes each. Result: According to the findings of the study, group reminiscence therapy significantly reduced the level of depression among elderly people. The mean difference in depression levels between pre-test and post-test among the elderly was 5.430. The paired t-test value (11.023) was found to be significant (p=0.001). Depression and financial support were shown to be significantly associated (p 0.001). Overall, group reminiscence therapy significantly reduced depression in elderly residents of old age home.