For 4 months in 2021, a joint project “Features of the art therapist’s work in the Psychological Relief Room” lasted under a three-party agreement between the Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University, the Territorial Center for Social Services №1 Ingulets district KMR and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. During the project, a training concept was created for psychologists working with the elderly people in a psychological relief room using sensory equipment.

     The purpose of the project was to practice the skills of an art therapist in the relief room, work with the equipment of the sensory room, work with cases. The project expert was Kateryna Bondar from the Kryvyi Rih State Pedagogical University, and the psychologist who implemented the project as the form of a service for the elderly was Olga Charieva, who was our graduate student in 2021.

     The modeling of the project included a training of skills, supervision with a volunteer, design and implementation of art therapy programs, presenting results at scientific seminars.

     The result of the training stage was the creation of group and individual programs based on the “successful old age” theories by E. Erickson and R. Peck. Setting a therapeutic goal is to improve the quality of life for the “successful old age” of the elderly through art therapy in the relief sensory room. These programs were tested on the basis of the Territorial Center for Social Services №1 during August-October 2021. Diagnostic screening was performed to test the effectiveness of the program (consisting of a geriatric depression scale; Spielberger test; Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10) and Diner’s Satisfaction With Life Scale, SWL).

     The results and model of the program were presented at an International seminar in Moldova on September 30, 2021 “Practical psychology in the context of social change: achievements and prospects of organizational psychology”; with a report by Kateryna Bondar “Features of the art therapist’s work in the Psychological Relief Room”. Art therapy group work programs are integrated into the course “Art therapy” for bachelor psychologists of the university in this year.