Reminiscência enquanto ferramenta de trabalho com idosos: Vantagens e limitações

Abstract

O objectivo deste artigo é analisar a importância da reminiscência enquanto estratégia terapêutica junto de idosos. Explora-se o conceito de reminiscência tal como decorre no quotidiano e analisa-se o seu surgimento como estratégia de trabalho com idosos, considerando os seus principais âmbitos de intervenção, desde moldes preventivos, como a adaptação à institucionalização, até níveis remediativos, como a estimulação do funcionamento cognitivo em quadros demenciais. Por fim, listam-se aquelas que se consideram ser as principais limitações inerentes à Terapia de Reminiscência no trabalho com idosos, nomeadamente a ausência de modelos estruturados de intervenção e as lacunas referentes a estratégias intencionais de avaliação de eficácia dos mesmos. Apresentam-se algumas estratégias promotoras da eficácia da Terapia de Reminiscência.

A quasi-experimental study of a reminiscence program focused on autobiographical memory in institutionalized older adults with cognitive impairment

“…Reminiscence interventions is based on the expertise the person has on his/her own life, which oneself knows very well, without the need of learning new abilities (Gonçalves et al, 2008) and can be used with early memories that remain relatively intact (Cotelli et al, 2012). Reminiscence is centred on the person's preserved abilities rather than focusing on the level of impairment caused by the disease (Cotelli et al, 2012;Gonçalves et al, 2008;O'Shea et al, 2011) and this is ought to be optimized in future investigations. Bearing in mind the therapeutic benefits of reminiscence in the emotional status, this study also showed a decrease of depressive symptoms that was statistically significant when comparing self reported depression.…”

“…In order to prevent this bias, the literature alerts to the need of multicentre randomized control trials with larger samples, multiple settings, and diverse therapists following a common intervention protocol (Subramaniam et al, 2014). The absence of consensual structured models for intervention is also seen as a methodological obstacle to effective reminiscence therapy and so it would be useful to establish in the future which objectives, intervention strategies and assessment methodologies are contributing to the available flimsy results (Gonçalves et al, 2008).…”

“…Reminiscence can be conceptualized as a normative process of thinking about the past that is inherent across lifespan of the human being (Gonçalves, Albuquerque, & Martín, 2008). It is a voluntary and spontaneous mental process of retrieving autobiographical memories, associated with life events that are considered significant and truthful to the person (Afonso, 2011;Cappeliez, Guindon, & Robitaille, 2008;.…”

“…The contemplation of the past has inspired a huge set of theoretical studies (Westerhof & Bohlmeijer, 2014) that lined the way for the investigation of reminiscence as a structured intervention. This is based on the assumption that stimulating reminiscence's positive functions (narrative, integrative, instrumental) can improve mental health (Cappeliez et al, 2008;Gonçalves et al, 2008;Pinquart & Forstmeier, 2012).…”

Reminiscence therapy: development of a program for institutionalized older people with cognitive impairment

“…Since no RT program has yet been developed that can be replicated in Portuguese settings, and considering that the lack of consensual structured intervention models may explain the methodological weaknesses that limit the analysis of the effectiveness of RT programs (Gonçalves, Albuquerque, & Martín, 2008;Cotelli et al, 2012), it was important to deve-lop and validate a program of this nature. The Medical Research Council (Craig et al, 2008) introduced the concept of complex intervention, describing it as a number of interactions between components within the experimental and control interventions, the number and difficulty of behaviors required by those delivering or receiving the intervention, a number of groups or organizational levels targeted by the intervention, the variability of outcomes, and the degree of flexibility or tailoring of the intervention permitted.…”