PLANNING A COMMUNICATION EDUCATION-PROGRAM FOR OLDER-PEOPLE

Nominal group technique (Delbecq, Van de Ven, & Gustafson, 1975) was u sed with seven groups of elderly people and two groups of professional s who work with the aged to determine the communication difficulties t hat community-based older people experience and to determine appropria te content for a proposed education program. The older people perceive d that their most significant communication problems were hearing diff iculties, memory toss, and word retrieval difficulties. The health and welfare professionals had different perceptions about the communicati ons problems of the elderly. Nominal group technique proved to be a va luable tool for identifying the communication needs of the elderly and for developing a health promotion program.