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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Psychosocial benefits of solitary reminiscence writing
— an exploratory study | | Author(s) | H Elford, F Wilson, K J McKee |
| Journal title | Aging & Mental Health, vol 9, no 4, July 2005 |
| Pages | pp 305-314 |
| Source | http://www.tandfonline.com |
| Keywords | Memory and Reminiscence ; Writing ; Well being ; Residents [care homes] ; Nursing homes ; Case studies. |
| Annotation | It has been claimed that reminiscence has benefits for older people's psychological well-being, and that writing memories may be a therapeutic process. This paper is part of the study, "Evaluating the impact of reminiscence on quality of life of older people", for the Economic and Social Research (ESRC) Growing Older programme (GO). It describes an exploratory study in which five nursing home residents engaged in a process of writing their memories by themselves in a series of booklets containing memory prompts and photographs over a 4-week period. Completed booklets were typed up by researchers and returned to participants the following week. Participants were also given a bound copy at the end of the study period. Analysis focuses on two sets of data: an in-depth case study of one participant; and a thematic analysis of field notes, researcher reflections, and the written material produced by the other study participants. The case study revealed three main themes: views on the past; sharing the past; and confidence in writing about the past. The field note analysis indicated the presence of four themes: proof and maintenance of skills; psychological or internal processes; social contact; and pleasure in reminiscence. The writing was seen as cathartic and provided a meaningful purpose, an opportunity to exercise writing skills and memory, and a focus for participants to share key stories with others. This exploratory study suggests there is potential in using solitary writing within a reminiscence framework to improve psychological well-being in older people. However, caution should be exercised when encouraging older people to write their stories. Issues of confidentiality, audience, support and appropriateness of the activity for the individual need to be considered. (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-060202217 A |
| Classmark | DB: HKP: D:F:5HH: KX: LHB: 69P |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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