The Effect of for Group Empowerment for Reducing Depression in Elderly

BACKGROUND: The number of elderly people in the world today is increasing. Indonesia is a country with an increasing number of older people who belong to the fastest in the world. The increase in the elderly population will bring consequences or problems that are quite complex given the wide range of physical deterioration, mental, and social well-experienced seniors. One of the problems in the case is mental depression. Elderly living in social homes with a background as a neglected elderly at a high risk of depression due to lack of social support. On the other hand, are physically a lot of the people who actually still quite active and have the potential to be empowered to be beneficial in the elderly active themselves and for others elderly who have obstacles on their daily activity. AIM: The aim of the study was to determine the effect peer group empowerment (PGE) in a decrease in the level of depression in the elderly active in elderly homes Dharma Bhakti Surakarta. METHODS: This study was quasi-experimental pre- and post-test with control group. Subjects were active elderly totaling 44 people at Dharma Bhakti Social Institutions Surakarta. The research instrument used questionnaires depression geriatric depression scale to measure level of depression, sheet monitoring the implementation of the PGE, and manual compliance procedures activity daily living elderly. Data were analyzed with the Wilcoxon test. RESULTS: The result showed the majority of elderly before PGE actions in the intervention in the mild depression, there was 55% for interventions group and the 73% for the control group. After the action of PGE, the majority of seniors experiencing mild depression; 91% in the intervention group and 68% in the control group. Wilcoxon test results obtained Z-value of –3.937 with p = 0.000 for the intervention group and Z-value of –0.074 with p = 0.941 for the control group. CONCLUSION: Peer group empowerment effects the decrease of depression in the elderly in elderly homes Dharma Bhakti of Surakarta.