Mental Time Travel GroupSocial Engagement Group Activities
Mental Time Travel Group: 12 groups of six participants each. Groups will attend two 90- minute therapeutic sessions per week over a four-week period. A structured protocol session format will be used, including a short check-in, brief-assessment (i.e., PANAS and BCSS), the core session activity, a second brief-assessment (i.e., PANAS and BCSS), and a closing reflection. The primary session activities will consist of reminiscence induction, imagery rescripting, and positive prospection. In all these sessions, participants will be asked to write down their thoughts in response to the session prompts/exercises which they will not be required to share with the rest of the group. In addition to these sessions, participants will continue their usual weekly social group programming at the Kimel Centre.
Social Engagement Group Activities: Participants in this condition will continue engaging in their usual weekly social group programming provided at the Kimel Centre. The Kimel Centre offers over 300 group-based programs across multiple categories, including Fitness \& Aquatics, Lectures \& Continued Education, Mind, Body, and Soul Wellness, Performing Arts, Nutrition \& Cooking, and Fine Arts \& Crafts, with offerings varying seasonally.
Study summary
The goal of this clinical trial is to examine whether updating fundamental beliefs about self, others and the world using a mental time-travel group program can reduce loneliness and improve well-being in older adults when combined with multimodal social engagement opportunities. Over the span of eight sessions, participants within the experimental group will be guided to complete autobiographical simulations grounded in therapeutic techniques including reminiscence, imagery rescripting and positive future thinking. Participants within the active control group will be instructed to continue with their usual social group activities.
Eligibility
Sex
ALL
Min age
65 Years
Max age
—
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion Criteria:
* Age ≥65
* Elevated loneliness based on a pre-specified cutoff of 44 on the UCLA version 3 Loneliness Scale (Russell, 1997)
* Capacity to provide informed consent
* Ability to participate in group sessions twice a week for four weeks
Exclusion Criteria:
* A diagnosis of dementia, mild cognitive impairment, stroke, other neurodegenerative disorders, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, personality disorders
* Any condition that would limit participants' capacity to benefit from or safely and comfortably complete the protocol. Given the nature of the protocol, which involves autobiographical memory recall in a group setting, individuals with a history of trauma-related diagnoses (e.g., PTSD or acute stress disorder) and/or those who score in the severe or extremely severe range on any of the depression (≥ 21), anxiety (≥ 15), or stress (≥ 26) subscales of the DASS-21, will be excluded in order to minimize the risk of significant distress during sessions
* Participants who are unable to complete short questionnaires at each session and online at follow-up will be excluded
Primary outcome measure(s)
UCLA Loneliness Scale (Version 3) — Baseline, 1-month post baseline, 3-month follow-up, and 6-month follow-up Items are scored on a 4-point Likert scale (1 = Never, 2 = Rarely, 3 = Sometimes, 4 = Always). Items 1, 5, 6, 9, 10, 15, 16, 19, and 20 are reverse scored. Total scores range from 20-80, with higher scores indicating greater levels of loneliness.
Brief Core Schema Scale (BCSS) — Baseline, twice at each of the eight experimental group sessions, 1 month post-baseline, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up Four subscales measure: (1) negative self-belief ("I am bad"), (2) negative other-belief ("Others are bad/hostile"), (3) positive self-belief ("I am good"), and (4) positive other-belief ("Others are good/trustworthy"). Items rated on 5-point Likert scale. Higher scores indicate greater endorsement within the subscale.
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) — Baseline, twice at each of the eight experimental group sessions, 1 month post-baseline, 3-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up Two 10-item subscales measure positive affect (e.g., interested, excited, proud) and negative affect (e.g., distressed, fearful, guilty). Items rated on 5-point Likert scale (1 = Very slightly or not at all; 5 = Extremely). Subscale scores range from 10-50, with higher scores indicating greater positive or negative affect.
This page summarises publicly available registry data for informational purposes — not medical advice. Eligibility is determined by each study team; patients should discuss participation with their clinician.
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