TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF ART ACTIVITIES AND QIGONG INTERVENTION FOR NURSING HOMES RESIDENTS: A DESCRIPTIVE QUALITATIVE STUDY

R. Roswiyani^{1 , 2}*, Cilia L. M. Witteman¹, Chok H. Hiew³, Jan Spijker^{1 , 4}, and Monty P. Satiadarma^2
1Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, R.Roswiyani@psych.ru.nl
²Department of Psychology, Universitas Tarumanagara, Jakarta, Indonesia.
³New Brunswick University, Canada.
⁴Pro Persona Mental Health Care, Depression Expertise Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
*Corresponding Author

Abstract

Methods: A descriptive qualitative study was conducted in nine nursing homes in Jakarta, Indonesia. The mean age of the participants were 74 years. Most participants were women (75%), had Javanese ethnic origin (58.3%), and had finished primary school or a lower educational level (62.5%). All participants had been living in a nursing home for one to five years, and they participated in an integrated intervention of art activities and qigong exercise for 8-weeks. More than 50% of the participants had high adherence to the intervention. Data were collected by using semi-structured interview, which consist of 14 open-ended questions. Participants’ responses were analyzed using conventional content analysis.

Results: The result was dominantly positive as participants reported that (1) the program had led to encouraging mental (reminiscence of past; learning of new methods of exercise, training creativity, and collaboration in group) and physical experiences (practicing Qigong movements and practicing drawing, pasting and collage) during the 8-weeks of intervention; (2) the program had met their expectations, i.e. to get positive experience, to have a meaningful activities in the nursing home, and to get benefits from the program; (3) the participants liked the intervention because of its benefits on their cognitive aspect (trained concentration and memory recall), physical aspect (becoming more active, improve regular breathing, helped blood circulation and made their movement more flexible), psychological aspect (heightened feelings of happiness, less boredom, increased self-confidence, and feeling more alive), social aspect (getting to know other residents, having more discussions and interactions between one another); and (4) most of the participants would join the program and they would prefer to join qigong than art activities in the future.

Conclusion: We conclude that nursing home residents enjoyed their participation in the integrated intervention of art activities and qigong exercise. It is thus recommended that such intervention will be included as one of the programs in a nursing home.

Keywords: art activity, qigong, nursing home resident, qualitative