Enhance Mental Health of the Elderly: The Effectiveness of Instrumental Reminiscence Intervention (IRI)

Abstract

This session is about the study aimed to examine the effectiveness of Instrumental Reminiscence Intervention – Hong Kong (IRI-HK) on alleviating depressive symptoms and improving life satisfaction in Chinese older adults living in empty nests (i.e., living alone or with a spouse only) in the community. A longitudinal randomized controlled design was adopted. An experimental and a wait-list control group were provided with the IRI-HK immediately and 12 weeks after the baseline assessment respectively. Participants were recruited via local elderly community centres. The IRI-HK is a group reminiscence intervention modified with cultural adaptations for Chinese older adults. Depressive symptoms and life satisfaction of the participants were measured by the Chinese version of the Geriatric Depression Scale-Short Form (GDS-15) and the Life Satisfaction Scale-Chinese (LSS-C) respectively. Findings from this study showed a significant difference in the depressive symptoms between groups after the intervention and significant higher life satisfaction of the experimental group. The IRI-HK was a successful cultural adaption suitable for use in the Chinese context. It was found to be an effective intervention for enhancing mental health among older adults living in empty nests in the community.