Effectiveness of Psychosocial Interventions on Depression Among Geriatric Clients

Abstract

Mental disorders in elderly persons vary widely, but a conservatively estimated 25% have significant psychiatric symptoms. In mental disorders Depression is the major important disorder affecting majority of people. Geriatric psychiatry is concerned with preventing, Diagnosing and treating psychological disorders in older adults. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions on depression among geriatric clients. The research hypothesis formulated was there is a significant association between psychosocial interventions and the level of depression among geriatric clients. The research design adopted for this study is pre experimental one group pre test post test design. Purposive sampling design was used to select 30 geriatric clients above the age of 60 years. The investigators used the geriatric depression scale to determine the level of depression as a pre test. Following the pre test psychosocial interventions were implemented for the period of 15 days. The post test was conducted with the same tool. The results revealed that the mean score of pretest level of depression among the geriatric clients is 19.36 with the standard deviation of 12.03. Whereas the mean score of posttest level of depression is 12.03 with the standard deviation of 0.01. The paired “t” test value is 9.80 which is significant at the level p<0.001.