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Purpose: It appears that spirituality, forgiveness, and self-esteem are important values which transcend human actions. This transversal study aims to observe spirituality, forgiveness, and self-esteem during aging. Methods: A quantitative protocol was conducted with 206 participants divided into two groups: younger adults (M = 23.05 years old) and older people (M = 73.09 years old). Three tests measured spirituality, forgiveness and self-esteem. Principal results: Results showed that older people have higher scores than younger adults in spirituality (peace dimension), forgiveness (transcendence and emotional factors) and self-esteem. Moreover, all dimensions of spirituality (peace, mean, faith) were correlated with the transcendence and emotional factors of forgiveness and with self-esteem during aging. Major conclusion: It seems that with age, individuals have a better self-esteem linked to more pronounced spiritual needs (sense of peace, meaning of life, faith) and manage to forgive more unconditionally with less resentment than younger people.

Supporting an elderly person with a neuro-evolutionary disease is a complex task, especially if the person has cognitive problems and lives in a nursing home. Non-drug approaches offer good alternatives to traditional treatment and care. More and more therapies based on theatrical improvisation are being developed to act on psychological health. The aim of this research is to study the effect of participation in theatrical improvisation workshops over a period of 8 weeks on quality of life, self-esteem, depressive symptoms and personal satisfaction in 10 elderly people (Mean = 87.70 years; SD = 2.87 years) with mild cognitive impairment. At the end of the theatre sessions, the participants reported better psychological health. This study provides insights into the development of non-drug mediations for elderly people with neuro-evolutionary diseases.

Context: Currently, there are more and more dependent old people with cognitive disorders in nursing homes, who have difficulties, even disabilities, in daily life activities such as washing, dressing, eating or orienting themselves. This represents a significant workload for caregivers. Non-drug approaches have a very wide field of action, impacting the resident as well as his environment. For example, video game such as Wii™ have many advantages (low cost, easy to use, various games) and positive cognitive, motor, social and psychological effects, Objectives: The objective of this qualitative study was through the establishment of a Wii™ animation in a nursing home. First, caregivers observed old people with advanced cognitive disorders in order to see changes over their participation. In a second step, these same caregivers were invited to describe their feelings about the participants reception of the Wii™ animation, after three months of using the console., Results: Five residents were observed and presented a gradual improvement in the understanding of the instructions (console usage and game rules), with more motivation and participation. Six caregivers observed these workshops for three months and highlighted positive reactions and final adherence to its implementation, a motivational impact and general positive effects (cognitive and motor stimulation, psychoaffective effects and favored social interactions).

This article provides a synthesis about the representations of aging around the world. The population of the elderly is increasing from year to year and the support of elder people is becoming a major challenge. Understanding the representations of aging is an essential element to catch how societies take care of their elderly. Beyond presenting the influence of the cultural variable on the representations of old age, this article also proposes to highlight the impact of the Covid-19 on these perceptions. Indeed, the crisis emphasized the way seniors are thought and treated when ethical questions arise.

Background: Increasing numbers of scientific studies have dealt with the benefits of animal assisted intervention programs (AAI). Although many positive effects have been identified, there are still few AAI programs in nursing homes. To date, no study has investigated special the difficulties in implementing such a program. The aim of this study was to explore the representations of this type of program among caregivers., Methods: This qualitative study was conducted between January and June 2019. Psychologists conducted 11 interviews with people working in nursing homes. The sample was based on different professions and on the fact that participants had already been involved in an IAA program., Results: The results were organized according to two main themes: brakes and levers. The results show that the brakes were raised quickly before the implementation of the project, but once the project had been implemented, the perceived beneficial effects multiplied and all those interviewed mentioned the benefits of animals. More than half of the caregivers interviewed mentioned animals as a lever, facilitating contact with elderly people suffering from dementia. Setting up a project upstream enhanced the success of this type of program., Conclusion: The benefits perceived by the people interviewed are consistent with the scientific literature. The obstacles mentioned for implementing this type of program can be reduced by a rigorous and well-thought-out project., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Aims and Objectives: To examine the impact of caregivers' street clothes on people living in special care units (SCUs). We hypothesised that caregivers wearing street clothes would improve residents' relationships with other residents and caregivers and, as a consequence, would improve their quality of life., Background: Environmental factors have been recognised as important elements in the care of people with dementia. Among these factors, the importance of the caregivers' appearance and more particularly their street clothes has been raised., Design: The Street Clothes study (STRECLO) was designed as a multicentre crossover observational study., Method: This study was conducted in two volunteer nursing homes. It involved videotaping residents (N = 24) over a 6-month period: caregivers wore uniform and then street clothes for two consecutive three-month periods. Three outcome measures were observed as follows: (a) behaviours of residents, (b) contents of conversations and (c) proximal interactions between residents and caregivers. The STROBE checklist was used to ensure quality reporting during this observational study., Results: When caregivers wore street clothes, we observed the following: (a) greater solicitation and less anxiety in residents, (b) content of conversations between residents and caregivers included more personal and less health information, and (c) more proximal interaction between caregivers and residents., Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study which investigated the long-term effects on residents of SCU caregivers wearing street clothes. Our study demonstrated the potential benefit of not wearing uniform on the quality of life of institutionalised people with dementia., Relevance to Clinical Practice: Given the budgetary constraints faced by nursing homes, wearing street clothes for caregivers could be readily applied to clinical practice and represents a promising way to increase the quality of life of dementia residents and their families., (© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

ABSTRACTObjectives:The objectives of the study were to examine the trajectory of spirituality among older adults, to investigate the roles of gender and religion on the developmental trajectory of spirituality, and to explore whether the linear growth of spirituality accelerated or decelerated at time points at which the participants reported high scores of social support and flexibility., Design: A five-year longitudinal study., Setting: The research used data from a longitudinal study, which follows a non-institutionalized older adults cohort of residents from France. The data used in this paper were collected at three time points (T1: 2007; T2: 2009; T3: 2012)., Participants: A total of 567 participants were included in the analysis (59.44% female; Mage = 75.90, SD = 5.12)., Measurements: Multilevel growth curve analysis was used measuring spirituality, satisfaction with social support, and flexibility., Results: The results indicated the following: (1) stability of spirituality over time, (2) older women reported higher levels of spirituality than older men, and those who had a religion reported higher scores of spirituality than their counterparts who had no religion (these effects were strong and clinically meaningful), (3) older adults who reported higher levels of social support and flexibility also reported higher levels of spirituality, and (4) the slope of spirituality seemed to accelerate at time points at which participants also had higher levels of social support and flexibility (these effects were rather small but of theoretical interest)., Conclusion: The results of the present study help to improve the understanding of the potential benefit of encouraging the spiritual aspects of life.

The study aimed to develop a French version of the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy-Spiritual Well-being short version (FACIT-Sp12), in order to provide a self-reported measure for French people in the field of gerontology. The study involving 63 nursing home residents was conducted to evaluate the construct validity, reliability, and convergence validity of the FACIT-Sp12. A confirmatory factor analysis corroborated a three-factor model (Meaning, Peace and Faith) with modifications for two items, also valid among people with cognitive impairment. Subscales showed good internal consistency and are correlated with quality of life and depression. In conclusion, the validated French version is an suitable instrument to study the maintenance and promotion of quality of life in the elderly.

Background: Religious and spiritual issues are clearly important to the older adult population and may play a positive role in maintaining health and recovering from illness. This study systematically reviewed the literature examining the effects of religion and spirituality on health outcomes such as cognitive functioning, coping strategies, and quality of life in people with dementia., Methods: First, 51 articles with defined keywords were collected from online databases. Then, using inclusion and exclusion criteria, 11 articles were selected. These were classified according to methodological quality before being analyzed one by one., Results: The findings highlight the benefits of spirituality and religion on health outcomes. Three articles showed that in participants who used their spirituality or religion more, through their faith, their practices and in maintaining social interactions, their cognitive disorders tended to reduce or stabilize. In the other eight articles, use of spirituality or faith in daily life enabled people to develop coping strategies to help accept their disease, maintain their relationships, maintain hope, and find meaning in their lives, thereby improving their quality of life., Conclusions: Spirituality and religion appear to slow cognitive decline, and help people use coping strategies to deal their disease and have a better quality of life. This literature review allows us to take stock of research over the last decade on spirituality/religion and health outcomes. The benefits observed should be considered with caution and included in rigorous experimental research in the future.