THE IMPACT OF REMINISCENCE GROUP THERAPY AMONG INSTITUTIONALIZED ELDERLY

Abstract

This study is an attempt at establishing the impact of reminiscence group therapy (RGT) among a group of institutionalized elderly in an Asian setting. It seeks to contribute to the practice and research on its usefulness as a form of therapeutic intervention with the elderly in Singapore. The greying of this country over the next 40 years means that increasing attention would be paid to meeting the psychosocial needs of the elderly in the later years of life. RGT is therfore proposed as an effective and economical means of doing so. Using the quasi-experimental approach, a nonequivalent control group design was used in this study. Twelve subjects were randomly assigned to both the experimental and control groups. In all, two males and eight females participated in the study. The experimental group was exposed to a reminiscing intervention which adopted a life course developmental perspective while the control group was exposed to a here and now intervention. Both groups met separately once a week for forty-five minutes to an hour over a six-week period. The instrument used in assessing the impact of RGT upon the subjects was the Morale Scale developed by the Philadelphia Geriatric Center. The post test results obtained for both groups on the Morale Scale indicated that more subjects from the reminiscing group had improved in their morale than those in the control group. The reminiscing sessions were recorded orally, transcribed verbatim and then analyzed for common themes. Three types of adaptive reminiscences were identified using a taxonomy of reminiscence developed by the two Canadian psychologists Watt and Wong (1991): integrative, narrative and transmissive reminiscences. The implications of the findings in both the institutional setting and policy-making in the field of gerontology were then mapped out. In particular, emphasis was placed on the potential of using RGT as a preventive measure in the provision of care for the elderly to meet their psychosocial needs and to facilitate their growth and adaptation in old age.