Evaluate the usefulness of reminiscence therapy for improving emotional health and psychological well-being in institutionalized elderly adults DESIGN TYPE AND LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level II: Quasi-experimental, single-blind design

Elderly adults, particularly those experiencing institutionalization (permanent residence in a health care facility), face high rates of depression, low self-esteem, and reduced psychological well-being. Reminiscence therapy, the planned use of stimuli to evoke meaningful or positive memories from the past, has been indicated in prior research to be a promising treatment approach for reducing depressive symptoms among institutionalized elderly adults. The authors of this study evaluated the effectiveness of 8 60-minute reminiscence therapy sessions on improving mental health and psychological well-being in a sample of institutionalized elderly adults. Following the intervention, the treatment group had significantly lower depressive symptomatology and significantly higher scores on self-esteem and life satisfaction measures. The control group showed no improvement on the self-esteem and life satisfaction measures and actually experienced more depressive symptoms during the posttest.