Effect of group integrated intervention program combined animal-assisted therapy and integrated elderly play therapy...

The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of a group integrated intervention program that simultaneously conducts cognitive activities, physical activities, emotional activities and social interactions by integrating animal-assisted therapy (AAT) and integrated elderly play therapy based on the cognitive functions and depression of the elderly who live alone. This study follows a pre-test post-test design with a nonequivalent control group, to verify the effectiveness of a group integrated intervention. It applies a group integrated intervention program to 20 elderly people who live alone, aged 65 and above (10 in the experimental group, 10 in the control group), once a week for 90 minutes across eight weeks. The study went through MMSE-K, TMT-A and GDSSF-A to assess cognitive functions and the level of depression. The group integrated intervention increased the cognitive functions of the experimental group and decreased levels of depression. Therefore, this study verified that a group integrated intervention program of AAT and integrated play therapy of the elderly, is an effective for increasing cognitive functions and decreasing depression levels of the elderly who live alone. Based on these findings, the study suggests that there is a need to continuously expand group integrated intervention programs and provide relevant political support.