Narrative Life Review and Poetry-Writing with Older Adults

This thesis explores narrative life review and poetry writing with older individuals, as an alternative to support their successful aging. Four females, ages 66-93, participated in a two-part project. Phase I included: (a) completing a narrative life review, and (b) developing original poetry with the researcher. Phase II included: (a) poetry reflection and (b) completing an open-ended evaluation. Phase 1 results demonstrated four successful narrative life reviews, which composed the poetry-writing sessions. Phase II demonstrated that three out of four participants reported no significant positive influences in the evaluation. Implications suggest social well-being replicated study can possibly assess social well-being by including shorter intervals between phases, weekly social interaction with participants, and random selection of demographics, representative samples, and certified scales to screen for well-being. In a group setting, social engagement may enhance narrative reflections and poetry writing