NON-PHARMACOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT OF DISTRESS AMONG COMMUNITY LIVING CENTER RESIDENTS USING TECHNOLOGY

摘要

While non-pharmacological management of distress in long-term care facilities is of critical importance, traditional psychotherapy interventions pose challenges of scale. To bolster non-pharmacological management of acute distress among a geropsychiatric cohort of community living center residents, assistive technology services were added. Traditional psychotherapy interventions including reminiscence, behavioral activation, and relaxation exercises were modified such that they could be delivered on a digital platform. A paired-samples t-test was conducted to compare resident’s subjective distress ratings immediately before assistive technology intervention and subjective distress ratings immediately after assistive technology intervention. There was a significant difference in the mean scores for pre-assistive technology intervention (M=4.09, SD=2.50) and post assistive technology intervention (M=2.29, SD=1.98) conditions; t(13)= 5.29, p = 0.000. These results suggest that our assistive technology interventions have helped to provide residents with a corrective emotional experience and justify future programmatic development of such non-pharmacological interventions.