Abstract
Introduction: Growing older confronts seniors with a variety of challenges and problems. Dealing with losses or the transition to a retirement home and the abandonment of the previous life pose difficulties for people in old age. Although there is a great need for treatment, there are hardly any therapy offers in retirement homes or outreach psychotherapy for seniors. This article aims to provide an overview of the current state of studies on psychotherapy in retirement homes and outreach psychotherapy in German-speaking countries. Study Overview: For this purpose, 9 studies were examined in more detail. Different approaches to psychological and psychotherapeutic care of seniors were adopted in the described studies. In addition to specific therapy techniques, such as life review therapy, there were also non-specific counseling services, activations with music or a clinical consultation and lay service. Despite good approaches in the available studies, controlled research with sufficient samples for significant effects is lacking in this area. Also, the presented approaches often pose challenges to therapists and patients. Conclusion: In summary, this article aims to emphasize the importance of psychotherapeutic work with seniors, whether living at home or in a retirement home. The already elaborated and good approaches, such as life review procedures, should be further evaluated in controlled studies in the future. The studies presented here could provide inspiration for a study in a multicenter setting.
Highlights
Growing older confronts seniors with a variety of challenges and problems
The need for treatment of mental disorders in retirement homes has been documented in many publications over the last years
Despite research on the inpatient setting, there are still few to no therapy services for frail seniors living at home, even though there are certainly forms of therapy that can be done well with the elderly, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Problem Solving Therapy (PST), Life review therapy (LRT) [17, 18], or Interpersonal Therapy [21]
Summary
The need for treatment of mental disorders in retirement homes has been documented in many publications over the last years. Laireiter et al [8] draw attention to the increased prevalence of mental disorders in retirement and nursing homes. Studies on outreach psychotherapy in the home environment of senior citizens, are hardly available This is even though it is known that seniors living at home suffer from restrictions in mobility, social participation, or independent living. On the other hand, psychotherapy or psychological counseling is easier to integrate and evaluate Many authors and their collaborators have been working for years on researching psychotherapeutic interventions or their specific requirements in retirement homes. This review is primarily concerned with work from German-speaking countries The reason for this is that the conditions of care vary enormously internationally. The problems that can arise during the transition to a retirement home and the framework conditions that psychotherapy with seniors requires will be illuminated
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