SAN DIEGO, Sept. 21, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — For more than a year, a major research study has been conducted by researchers at University of California, San Diego’s (UCSD), Center for Healthy Aging and Mather LifeWays Institute on Aging to test the effectiveness of an intervention to enhance resilience in older adults. The study, entitled Positive Psychological Intervention to Enhance Resilience in Older Adults, is designed to promote resilience and well-being through three group sessions along with other activities such as a happiness journal, setting goals, and discussing perceptions of aging. High resilience has been shown to be a major determinant of well-being among seniors, and is associated with lower levels of depression, anxiety, and perceived stress, improved quality of life, greater happiness, better physical health, and increased longevity.
The project was funded by Mather LifeWays in June 2017 for study in three locations in Evanston, IL, Tucson, AZ, and San Diego, CA. The first research groups met at The Mather in Evanston and at Splendido in Tucson in November 2017. Since then, four additional groups of residents participated in the resilience program. The San Diego study, which is a collaborative effort with independent living residents at Belmont Village Senior Living, started in April 2018 first at Belmont Village Cardiff by the Sea, then followed in June by Belmont Village Sabre Springs. The research should be completed by the end of 2018 with the intent to publish key findings by mid-2019.