title: Life-crossroads on stage: integrating life review and drama therapy for older adults.
abstract: This paper examines the contribution of a new group of therapeutic interventions for older adults, based on a rudimentary life-review intervention. The intervention includes narrative elements together with drama therapy. The current study examines the influence of this therapeutic intervention on key indicators of mental health and psychological well-being among older adults.
  
  
  
  Fifty-five people (n = 55), ranging in age from 62 to 93, participated in a before-after study design. The following indices - meaning in life, self-acceptance, relationships with others, depressive symptoms, and experience of successful aging - were compared between an intervention group (n = 27) and a care-as-usual control group (n = 28).
  
  
  
  Repeated measures analyses of variance showed a significant improvement over time in the experimental group. In addition, results also showed time-group interaction regarding the treatment's effectiveness for self-acceptance, relationships with others, sense of meaning in life, sense of successful aging, and depressive symptoms.
  
  
  
  Our findings confirm that the new therapeutic intervention, which integrates life-review with drama therapy, increases self-acceptance, relationships with others, sense of meaning in life, and sense of successful aging; in turn, it also decreases depressive symptoms among older adults. The contribution of this research is based on the development of a therapeutic intervention that combines narrative together with drama therapy tools, which can be used in focused and short-term group treatments with the elderly.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Gerontology, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences , University of Haifa , Haifa , Israel.
authors.forename: Shoshi
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-1988-7601
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Keisari
authors.affiliation: b The Center for Research and Study of Aging, Department of Gerontology, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences , University of Haifa , Haifa , Israel.
authors.forename: Yuval
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Palgi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D062525:Narrative Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011577:Psychodrama / Q000379:methods*; D012649:Self Concept
keywords: Life-crossroads; drama therapy; group psychotherapy; life-review; older adults