Reminiscence Therapy Decreases the Level of Depressions among Elderly: A Quasi Experiment

Abstract

The elderly often experiences with mild to severe of depression from various reasons. Reminiscence therapy is a non-pharmacological therapeutic intervention that can be given to the elderly with depressive symptoms. The therapy combines the individual therapy with the group therapy, aiming to improve the quality of life for the elderly. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of reminiscence therapy in reducing depression in the elderly. The research design was one group pre-posttest with a total sample of 30 respondents consisting of 8 men and 22 women. The presence of depression was measured with the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) questionnaire. It was found that the reminiscence therapy significantly reduces the severity of depression (p < .001), with the mean value before therapy was 10.20, SD=0.805, and the mean value after the therapy was 7.067, SD = 1.946. This therapy can be used as a program by the community health centers in carrying out the elderly, especially those with depressive symptoms.