A New Comprehensive Educational Group Program for Older Adults with Cognitive Complaints: Background, Content, and Process Evaluation

Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive intervention for older adults with cognitive complaints. It offers psycho-education about cognitive aging and contextual factors, focuses on skills and compensatory behavior, and incorporates group discussion. The intervention reduced negative emotional reactions towards cognitive functioning in healthy women aged 60 to 75 years. Its background and content are described in detail to enable application and replication. To investigate the possibility for large-scale implementation, a process evaluation was carried out. The results support participants' appreciation and point to better self-evaluations after intervention. This intervention may offer a valuable contribution to public health care for older adults.

Development and evaluation of the positive psychology intervention for older adults

“…For example, to facilitate understanding on the meaning of courage, the practitioner discussed its definition and how it could become a source of strength when confronted with undesirable situations. Education-based interventions have shown to improve knowledge and promote attitude change among older adults (Hoogenhout, de Groot, & Jolles, 2011;Norrie et al, 2011). Furthermore, positive psychology intervention is only effective when participants clearly understand the benefits of the exercises (Sin, Della Porta, & Lyubomirsky, 2011). Thirdly, for the self-reinforcement component, takehome exercises were given to the older adults in order to utilize the strengths that have been brought out and emphasized during the session.…”

Keep Your Brain Fit! A Psychoeducational Training Program for Healthy Cognitive Aging: A Feasibility Study

“…Selected domains were: 1) making cognitive mistakes, 2) being hindered by cognitive mistakes, 3) being worried about cognitive abilities, 4) being afraid about becoming demented, 5) feeling able to cope with cognitive challenges. Answers were rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 'worse than before the training' to 'better than before the training' (Hoogenhout, de Groot, & Jolles, 2010;Hoogenhout, de Groot, van der Elst, & Jolles, 2012). These self-evaluation questions were asked directly after participation in the workshop and again after three weeks.…”

Cognitive Interventions in Older Persons: Do They Change the Functioning of the Brain?

“…Aging is accompanied by changes in our cognitive functioning based on structural and functional changes in the brain [ 1 , 2 ]. Many older persons complain about diminished cognitive functioning [ 3 ]. Cognitive complaints and cognitive deficits are often a burden for older persons and their family [ 4 – 6 ].…”

“…Cognitive stimulation in a social setting such as reminiscence with reality orientation is associated with benefits in cognitive functioning as well as quality of life, well-being, communication, and social interaction skills [ 9 ]. In healthy elderly, cognitive interventions lead to fewer negative emotional reactions towards cognitive functioning [ 3 , 12 , 13 ], improvement in coping with reported cognitive failures [ 12 , 13 ], and better objective cognitive functioning [ 13 , 14 ]. Another important goal of cognitive interventions is intervening at an early stage of cognitive decline to slow or prevent progression to dementia.…”