INFORMAL ART THERAPY GROUP AMONG MINORITY SENIORS IN INDEPENDENT LIVING COMMUNITIES

The elderly population have developed some resistance toward accepting community-based social services. Such resistance could be detrimental to the well-being of low-income seniors by hindering their chance of accessing services intended for them in the first place. Art therapy is seen as a promisin...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rodriguez, Jennifer
Format: Others
Published: CSUSB ScholarWorks 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/etd/658
https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1754&context=etd
Description
Summary:The elderly population have developed some resistance toward accepting community-based social services. Such resistance could be detrimental to the well-being of low-income seniors by hindering their chance of accessing services intended for them in the first place. Art therapy is seen as a promising intervention against client resistance. This study evaluated the effectiveness of art therapy on reducing resistance to services among low-income seniors living in independent living communities. Through a pre-experimental design, this study analyzed administrative data for a sample of 37 participants from a social service agency in Southern California. Results from two non-parametric tests (WilcoxonSigned-Rank and Mann-Whitney-U) revealed that art therapy is very effective in reducing resistance among seniors. Implications for gerontology and social services providers were discussed.