<p> The purpose of this study was to record and analyze how an end-of-life (EOL) doula and EOL doula care-recipient&rsquo;s [doulee&rsquo;s] family members perceive and describe their personal doula lived experiences during their participation in an EOL doula program. Additionally, it sought to gain clarity on how an EOL doula can augment current palliative and hospice care services to improve and more accurately meet the needs and wants identified by the EOL doulees as reported by the EOL doulee&rsquo;s family members and the EOL doulas that accompanied them. To accomplish this, 15 co-researchers, 11 EOL doulas and 4 doulee family members, from JFCS, Inc. were interviewed wherein they shared their personal doula lived experiences. </p><p> The interviews were analyzed through existential-phenomenological thematic analysis and generated 10 major themes: (a) Just being there, being present, and spending time; (b) No one should die alone; (c) It is important to be a good listener; (d) An EOL doula can work together with hospice because his or her role is different; (e) An EOL doula can provide spiritual support; (f) An EOL doula needs to have certain personality traits; (g) An EOL doula remains open to engage in activities wanted or needed by the EOL doulee; (h) An EOL doula needs to be aware of his or her comfort level with the different phases of dying; (i) An EOL doula can also provide support to the EOL doulee&rsquo;s family and loved ones; and (j) The EOL doula program has comprehensive and ongoing trainings and supervision for all EOL doulas.</p>

<p> Human values are a perennially important and popular topic in psychology. In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), values are one of the six core processes have been shown to contribute to psychological flexibility (the ability consciously to contact the present moment fully and without needless defense, and to persist in or change behavior(s) in pursuit of one&rsquo;s chosen values). Values in ACT may be conceptualized as a compass guiding a person&rsquo;s behaviors in a direction. Values are also an important topic in geropsychology, often in the context of healthcare values and preferences. Even outside of healthcare settings, the aging process itself makes values work relevant. As we age, we must adapt to changing environments, diminishing cognitive and physical abilities, shrinking social circles, inevitable losses, and increased exposure to ageism. As the population demographics of the U.S. and other nations continues to shift toward older ages, there is a growing need for better treatments and assessment tools related to values that are suitable for use with older adults. </p><p> The Values Across the Lifespan Questionnaire, or VALQUEST, was developed to explore a new and more concrete yet flexible approach for values assessment that could meet the needs of older adults specifically and adults more generally. The VALQUEST was administered to 488 adults (253 over the age of 55) along with other relevant measures. Factor analysis led to a reduction in items, an improved scoring system, and evidence for a three-factor structure consistent with the design of the measure. The VALQUEST showed compelling evidence of concurrent validity with its large correlations with a well-studied measure of values, the Valued Living Questionnaire (VLQ: Wilson, Sandoz, Kitchens, &amp; Roberts, 2010). Construct validity was evidenced through VALQUEST&rsquo;s significant and consistent correlations with theoretically related measures of psychological flexibility, committed action, depression, and life satisfaction. </p><p> The VALQUEST adds the unique components of values identification (specifying and quantifying specific values from a provided list of exemplars) and assessment of the intrinsic or extrinsic motivation behind the values. In comparing the VALQUEST with the VLQ and measures of psychological flexibility and committed action as correlates of depression and life satisfaction, the VALQUEST was consistently related and often accounted for additional variance beyond well-established measures in these areas. Study limitations include collecting data at a single time point, leaving temporal reliability and measure reactivity unknown. </p><p> The VALQUEST is a viable measure that can be used now and can be easily modified for future purposes. The present study provides a "proof of concept" for the strategy deployed to create VALQUEST. While originally conceived with older adults as a special population of interest, the values measurement approach can readily be applied to values measurement development with other groups, such as specific cultural groups, military veterans, medical students, and so on. It could also be used to assess broad values, not separated by life domains; or many additional domains beyond the three in the current version. Subparts of the VALQUEST would be well-suited for use in time series designs assessing the dynamic interplay between values and other variables in daily life using ecological momentary assessment. The VALQUEST provides unique qualitative information about individual values while still maintaining a low response burden and collecting quantitative data, opening up many new areas of research into human values.</p><p>

<p> With limitations brought about by physical and cognitive decline in older adults, many of them struggle with a loss of independence in performing daily tasks and in decision-making when transitioning into a nursing home or assisted living facility. With the older adult population growing rapidly, healthcare systems must stress the importance of increasing the population's quality of life through treating the whole person. Little research has been conducted on the effects of adaptive tools and adaptations in art therapy on mood and control as a sense of autonomy. This art-based phenomenological research explored the benefits of using adaptive tools and other adaptations in art therapy with 4 older adults, who experienced various transitions while living in a rehabilitation and healthcare facility. This study analyzed participants' artwork and art making experience during a single one-on-one, semi-structured session. The researcher analyzed her own journal entries and artwork created in response to each session. Adaptations and adaptive tools were gradually introduced as requested by the participant or when deemed necessary by the researcher. Participants were asked to reflect about their artworks and art making process. This study qualitatively depicted the value of responsive rather than anticipatory adaptations toward increased self-expression and self-awareness in this population, as well as support of their need to reclaim physical, cognitive, and emotional control as autonomy.</p><p>

<p> There are many variables that influence how successfully someone can move through the aging process while maintaining high levels of health, physical and psychological. In the present study, we examined how self-perceptions of aging&mdash;or the way in which someone might view their own aging process in a more positive or negative manner&mdash;influenced such healthy aging outcomes. More specifically, it was hypothesized that if we could get people to hold a more positive view of the aging process, it would make them more likely to work towards maintaining or improving their own levels of psychological well-being. In order to test this idea, older adult participants were recruited and placed into treatment or control groups. The treatment groups received a brief, psychoeducational intervention in the form of a presentation, discussing healthy aging, the importance of holding a positive view of aging, and ways to improve mental health in old age. The findings of this study indicated that the intervention did not significantly help to improve positive perceptions of aging compared to the control group, nor to increase their levels of engagement in psychologically healthy behaviors. However, there were many limitations to this study that may have been confounding, many of which would be easily changeable if the study were to be replicated in the future. Therefore, further research is merited on these topics, as they may provide much needed information about how to help senior citizens stay psychologically healthy.</p>

<p> Given the increasing number of older adults in the population, the fact that about 1 in 10 people over the age of 65 will develop mild cognitive impairment, and the substantial individual, familial, and financial burden associated with such disorders, the need for innovative research examining cognitive impairment in older adults is evident. The present study used a microlongitudinal design to assess cognition and contextual factors that may affect cognition for 14 consecutive days using a daily diary method in older adults with varying degrees of cognitive function. This study design enables investigation of concurrent associations between variables, as well as providing unique information not gleaned from the traditional focus on mean values of cognition. The present study had two broad aims: 1) to compare variability in cognition in older adults with varying degrees of cognitive impairment and 2) to investigate relationships between daily cognitive performance, variability in cognitive performance, and contextual factors that may influence daily cognitive performance and variability in older adults with varying degrees of cognitive impairment. Results suggest there was sufficient intraindividual variability in daily cognition to warrant investigation of within-person associations. Furthermore, the contextual factors of pain, stress, and sleep were predictive of cognitive performance, but with significance and directionality of these associations depending on level of measurement (baseline, daily, or mean values). Finally, associations between contextual factors and cognition were frequently conditional upon baseline cognitive status. The findings highlight the need for continued examination of these associations to expand our understanding of cognition in older adults and to discover potential targets for interventions to attenuate cognitive decline.</p>