Development and Evaluation of Preventive Mental Health Program for Depression among the Elderly in Community : Focused on the Community Welfare Center User

재가노인의 우울증 예방 프로그램 개발과 효과성 연구 : 사회복지관 이용노인을 중심으로

The purpose of this research was to develop and evaluate a preventive mental health program for the depression among the elderly in community. Based on the review of literature, intervention program for preventing depression among the elderly was developed. In particular, the program focuses on enhancing the sense of control which is from social cognitive theory. The preventive mental health program consists of two parts: Tan-Hak and Social intervention program. Tan-Hak was oriented to cognitive change and activities, while social intervention program dealt with some social skills for relationship, stress management, motivation of social activities (volunteer activities), positive future designing, etc. For the evaluation of this program, we employed depression scale and medical measurement such as hormone test before and after the program, and in-depth interview of subjects. Overall, this program was successful in some points. First, through the pre and post test, this program has positive effect on strengthening the sense of control, and consequently, lowering depression level. Secondly, 18 people started this program called "smile class" at first time, and none of them turned out until the end of the program. This implies that the program was interesting to the elderly.