PENGARUH TERAPI MENULIS PENGALAMAN EMOSIONAL TERHADAP TINGKAT DEPRESI LANSIA DI PANTI WREDA DARMA BAKTI KASIH SURAKARTA

Abstract

Background : a person in the elderly will experience a failure to maintain a balance of
physiological stress conditions, resulting in increased susceptibility to depression.
Socioeconomic changes and social values of society, family system shift from extended
family to nuclear family, industrialization culture with independent character and
individualist consider elderly as "trouble maker" and become burden. This results in the
tendency of the elderly to be excluded and, not getting treatment, so many choose to
place it in elderly homes. This condition will of course affect the incidence of depression
in the elderly. To overcome depression can be done various therapies, one of which is
writing therapy, the therapy that does not give priority to physical complaints but the
enlightenment of the soul through the release of emotions. Expressive writing is a form of
writing to release and explore the deepest traumatic emotions and thoughts that make
the sufferer feel an inner wound. Purpose of the study: to determine the effect of writing
therapy emotional experiences on the level of depression in the elderly.
Methods : quasy experimental research. Data analysis using t test formula with SPSS
program series 18. Subjects : elderly living in a nursing home.
Results: the significance value of t test (2 tailed) is 0.015.
Conclusion : that writing therapy can reduce the level of depression in the elderly.
Keywords: Writing Therapy, Elderly Depression