Touch and communication in the institutionalized elderly

Recent literature reports that more than half of the major age-related depression cases show a late onset, often resulting from institutionalization in nursing homes or hospitalization. The onset of depression in the elderly following hospitalization seems to depend on multiple factors, biological, psychosocial, and organic. The purpose of this research was to assess the effectiveness of the Functional hand-arm massage protocol in an institutionalised group of elderly people, assuming that the intervention is able to raise the mood tone, promote integration and the general harmonization of the basic functions. According to the Neofunctional conception (or Functional Psychology) human beings are born already equipped with a set of species-specific functions that will accompany them for the duration of their life and with which they can organize their lives. The results of this research show that the Functional approach of touch-massage is able to reduce depressive symptoms in institutionalized elderly subjects, inducing significant changes in the basic functions of the self, generally increasing the mobility of the functions examined and significantly decreasing the functional alterations underlying the depressive picture in some cases.