Groups Throughout the Life Span functions. The Gray Panthers run groups that focus on issues dealing with universal health care. Jobs with a living wage. preservation of Social Sec affordable access to qual education. economic justice. the environment. Peace. and challenging ageism. sexism. and racism www graypanthers.org. Gray Panthers groups are organized nationally and at kcal level too. The is the country's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to AARP (www.aarp.org) for its membership a evels interests of mature Americans. It conducts groups on diferent Issues co others who are interested in legislative initiatives affecting the lives of senior citizens. ealth care, advocacy. and community involvement. Both the Gray ered include education Panthers and the AARP are headquartered in Washington. DC. umerous individuals grew up e fact tha Because of the power of these two groups and rough par with them, many older adults join them and find both meaning and se thin their comm in them. However, other older adults join local ous or civic groups psychoeducational and that a not as politically active. They also benefit from the interactive task work such organizations sponsor especially if they stay actively involved skinner groups & Vaughan. 1997) In addition, there are psychoeducational groups for older adults who are not as Phy able and who require long-term care. Currently there are around 9 on people over age 65 in on by 2030 the United St in this category with an expected rise to more 1 ation such group se Haase. Archibald, Brescian. Martin. & Fitzpatrick. 2009) g of individuals in these envir and cognitive stimulation occur and increase t we about how to set up and run a current Vacha-Haase and colleagues have given extensive deta events group in long-term care facilities. Among the recommendations they make are that such at most and usually smaller homogenous (with people who groups should be small (8 to environment (such as a warm and have similar cognitive abilities and conducted in an optim comfortable room). Groups may be open or closed. and open-ended questions are optima Leaders of such groups may have to paraphrase often as well as reflect emotions to let members know that their feelings have been heard. Howeve. these groups are effective in helping res e of functioning than would otherwise be possible a higher dents move Counseling and Psychotherapy Groups In addition to psychoeducational and task work groups. there are seven counseling and psy chotherapy groups for older adults that are covered here. differ in both purpose and scope from the psychoeducation and task work groups just described. They are aimed at helping men tally impaired older adults through psychotherapeutic means. The groups in this cluster are real ty oriented. remotivation therapy. reminiscing and life review. and therapy. The last three groups in the counseling and psychotherapy category--topic- and theme-focused. member specifi and Groups are more preventive and educational in nature Reality-oriented groups are set up for older individuals who have become disoriented to their surroundings. Reality-oriented theory is unrelated to the theory of reality therapy developed by William Glasser.) These groups, although educationally f are therapeu tically based in that they emphasize helping group members become more of their aware present surroundings in terms of time. place, and people (Burnside, 1986: Thomas & Martin 2009). Group membership is limited to three or four participants when the circumstances a severe. but groups for less disoriented individuals involve seven or eight people. Groups may meet daily and. if basic information is mastered. members progress to more creative and practical activities (Capuzzi & Gross. 1980). Because reality-oriented groups are conducted