A study to assess the effect of reminiscence therapy on psychological well-being, depression, and loneliness among elderly in selected old age homes of Mysore

Abstract

In the present study to assess the effect of reminiscence therapy on psychological well-being, depression, and loneliness among elderly in selected old age homes of Mysore. a non-equivalent pre-test and post-test control group quasi experimental design was adopted. The samples were selected by adopting the non-probability convenience sampling technique. The sample consisted of 70 elderly staying in selected old age homes of Mysore, out of which 35 each in experimental and control group. The tool used for the data collection was Standardized geriatric depression scale to assess depression, Standardized Affect balance scale to measure psychological well-being, and Standardized UCLA loneliness scale to assess loneliness. On day1, 2, & 3 psychological well-being, depression, and loneliness were pre tested both in experimental and control group. On day 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, &14 the reminiscence therapy were administered to experimental group. On day 22, 23, &24 post test was conducted respectively in both groups. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data . Findings of the study revealed that there is a significant  reduction in the post test mean depression, and loneliness scores of elderly in experimental group than the control group as evident from the ‘t’ value 5.365, and 9.268 with post-test  df ‘t’(68) at 0.05 level of significance, and also there is a significant gain in the post test mean psychological score of elderly in experimental group than the control group as evident from the ‘t’ value 4.763 with post-test  df ‘t’(68) at 0.05 level of significance. There was no significant association found between psychological well-being, depression, and loneliness of elderly in old age homes and their selected personal variables viz. age, gender, marital status, education level, income, visits by family members and other chronic medical illness. The findings revealed that, pre-test depression, and loneliness scores of elderly