ABSTRACT
The purposes of this study were to test the effects of a 2-week, four-session group intervention with older adults, designed to increase memory self-efficacy and memory performance and to evaluate the influence of depression on memory self-efficacy. A total of 145 community-dwelling older adults (M = 71 years) participated in the study. The intervention significantly increased both memory self-efficacy and memory performance in the treatment group (n = 74). In addition, the treatment group's perception of control in memory-demanding situations was strengthened, and their perception of negative changes in memory over time was diminished. The control group (n = 71) experienced a significant decline in memory self-efficacy over time. Memory performance was not significantly related to memory self-efficacy. Those individuals with depression (M = 7.5), as measured by the short Geriatric Depression Scale, had significantly lower memory self-efficacy scores than those without depression; however, there was no difference in memory performance between the depressed and nondepressed subjects. From the posttest to the follow-up period, depressed subjects receiving the intervention showed a significant decrease in memory self-efficacy, while nondepressed subjects showed no change.
Subject(s)
Adaptation, Psychological , Depressive Disorder/psychology , Memory Disorders/prevention & control , Patient Education as Topic/methods , Self Care , Aged , Attitude to Health , Depressive Disorder/diagnosis , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Internal-External Control , Male , Memory Disorders/psychology , Psychiatric Status Rating ScalesABSTRACT
In general hospitals, especially on acute medical-surgical, and general psychiatric units, geriatric patients are often exposed to attitudes of resentment or rejection. Individuals with treatable mental illnesses may be relatively neglected or dismissed as "senile," and their special needs not attended to. This tends to occur when the particular psychological issues of elderly patients are not shared by most of the other patients, and also when staff members are prejudiced about old people, either because of fear about their own aging or because of unresolved difficulties with parents or grandparents. The authors believe that age-specific geriatric units are the most effective treatment format for the elderly in need of psychiatric care. One example of such a unit opened in 1980, the Geriatric Psychiatry Unit currently in operation at the Johnston R. Bowman Health Center for the Elderly, a part of Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, is described.
