The purpose of this study was firstly to identify the effects of group art therapy utilizing reminiscence method on depression, ego integrity and quality of life and then to apply the therapy to the elderly in nursing home thereby reducing their level...
The purpose of this study was firstly to identify the effects of group art therapy utilizing reminiscence method on depression, ego integrity and quality of life and then to apply the therapy to the elderly in nursing home thereby reducing their level of depression and achieving self-fulfillment and ultimately to present a solution to improve their quality of life.
The study was conducted against randomly selected 20 elderly people above the age of 65 residing in paid nursing home; 10 in the experiment group and another 10 in the control group.
The research was carried out for the period of two months from June 24, 2010 to August 24, 2010. The group art therapy program utilizing reminiscence method was composed of 16 sessions and it measured ex-ante and ex-post rating scale figures of emotion, depression, quality of life, and ego integrity and analyzed relevant factors based on the key variables.
Presenting image stimulus to the subjects through the reminiscence method brought about significant increases in all ex-post figures of detailed experiment factors such as physical response, cognition, and emotional communication. On top of that, emotion, depression, quality of life, and ego integrity showed significant growth in ex-ante figures.
The aforementioned results show that the group art therapy using reminiscence method has significant positive influences on emotion, depression, quality of life and ego integrity. Therefore, it is regarded necessary to take introduction of the image stimulation program using reminiscence method into account in order to improve quality of life of the elderly in the nursing home.
Keyword: Reminiscence therapy, Group art therapy, Nursing Home Elderly, Emotion, Depression, Quality of life, Ego integrity