ABSTRACT
Most senior veterans who live in veteran homes in Taiwan have few interpersonal relationships. Aging is often accompanied by solitude and illness, which causes senior veterans to doubt the meaning of life and to lose confidence in the value of life. This study tested the effectiveness of a group reminiscence therapy protocol on the depression and meaning of life among elderly institutionalized veterans. A quasi-experimental design was applied. A convenience sample of older adults was drawn from two veteran homes in southern Taiwan. Participants were assigned to intervention or control groups based on the veterans' homes they attended. The participants in the intervention group carried out group reminiscence therapy for 8 weeks in addition to their daily activities. The participants in the comparison group maintained their daily activities. Both groups were evaluated using the GDS-SF and MLS scale including two aspects of depression mood and meaning of life in weeks 1 and 8. The overall life satisfaction increased significantly over time for the intervention group compared to the comparison group from week 1 to week 8. The group reminiscence therapy programs showed promising effects in improving the depression and meaning of life of older veterans living in veteran homes.
Acknowledgments
Sincere appreciation is the administrators and staff of the two veteran homes for their support and assistance, and to the 24 wonderful veterans for their generous participation.
Contributors
All authors meet the criteria for authorship, have approved the final article, and all those entitled to authorship are listed as authors.
Disclosure
The authors have confirmed that all authors meet the ICMJE criteria for authorship credit (www.icmje.org/ethical_1author.html), as follows: (1) substantial contributions to conception and design, acquisition of data, or analysis and interpretation of data; (2) drafting the article or revising it critically for important intellectual content; and (3) final approval of the version to be published.
Conflict of interests
The authors report no conflict of interests in this work.
Human subjects
Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital [KMUH-IRB-2016-12-13B].