Social Dreaming with Older Adults

Abstract

Previously, many psychologists have had limited professional involvement with older adults (Karel, Gatz, & Smyer, 2012). The ageing baby boomers in 2011foresaw the numbers of older adults increase dramatically as a proportion of the population (AHA, 2007). About 1 in 5 older adults has a mental disorder, such as depression, anxiety and dementia (NAMI, 2015) and their needs for mental health services are increasingly difficult to meet. To do so, an approximate doubling of the current level of psychologists’ time with older adults will be required (Karel, Gatz, & Smyer). Public policy faces tensions between cost containment and facilitation of integrated models of care (Quadagno, 2010). Most older adults access mental health services through primary care sites, where interdisciplinary models have been found to be effective (Unützer et al., 2002). To meet the needs of the ageing population, psychologists need to increase their awareness of competencies for geropsychology screening and treatment (Solis & Brink, 1989). A previously popular therapeutic intervention, dream work, offers an approach that may hold promise for the elderly when re-imagined as dream-sharing in a social dreaming group context. Participants (4 plus 2 alternates) will be recruited through the Palos Verdes library system to participate in a problem identification/solution-finding process through social dreaming. The hypothesis that the social dreaming process will result in increased participant well-being will be evaluated through a hermeneutic phenomenological assessment of their lived experiences.