The Effect of a Group Counseling Program Based on Satir’s Model on Depression in Older Adults in Muang District, Nakhon Ratchasima Province

Abstract

In providing nursing care for older adults who suffer from depressive symptoms, the mental problems will persist for the long term if they are not resolved in depth. This quasi-experimental research aimed to compare the average scores of a group participating in a counselling program based on the Satir model and a group receiving regular care by comparing their average scores on the Thai Geriatric Depression Scale (TGDS) form  at three time points: before, after participating in the program, and at a 1-month post-program follow up.  The participants were 28 older people recruited from a Sub-District Health Promoting Hospital in Nakhon Ratchasima province during a hospital visit. They were purposively selected based on inclusion criteria and then randomly assigned to the experimental (n = 13) or comparison (n = 15) group.  The research instruments were comprised the group counseling program based on the Satir model and The Thai Geriatric Depression Scale (TGDS) form. The data were analyzed using one factor repeated measure ANOVA. The results revealed that there was a significant difference in depressive symptoms between the experimental and the comparison groups, F (1, 26) = 12.0, p = .002, ηp² = 0.44. Older adults in the experimental group reported a lower score for depressive symptoms than this in the comparison group. In the experimental group, there was a significant difference in the scores for depressive symptoms at the before, after and one-month post-experiment, F (2, 52) = 54.4, p < .001, ηp² = 0.66, time points. The group counseling program based on the Satir model elicited significant decreases in depression among the older adults in the study. Therefore, public health officers should apply the program to caring for older adults with depression in the community context.