Autobiographical Narration as a Tool for the Empowerment of Older Adults' Subjective and Psychological Wellbeing in Nursing Homes.

OBJECTIVES

Conceiving narration as a resource to promote older people's wellbeing, the present work aimed to implement a narrative-based intervention to empower the subjective and psychological wellbeing of older adults living in nursing homes.

METHODS

Twenty-one nursing-home residents took part in a narrative training experience consisting of three weekly interview sessions. During each interview, a psychologist helped the participants to construct an autobiographical narrative about their present life in the nursing home based on a Deconstruction-Reconstruction technique. Subjective and psychological wellbeing variables were assessed before and after the intervention.

RESULTS

Subjective but not psychological wellbeing increased over the course of the intervention. The participants reported to appreciate the intervention.

CONCLUSIONS

Although preliminary, the results suggest that brief narrative training based on narrative therapy can positively affect nursing-home residents' subjective wellbeing.

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS

Brief narrative interventions implementing deconstruction-reconstruction techniques are feasible for long-term care residents.