Introduction: Aging is a critical period of human life and the issues and needs of this stage is a social necessity . Awareness of mental health and effective non-pharmacological interventions is helpful to achieve the mental health during this period . The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of a poetry therapy on the cognitive status of the elderly .

  Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted with 72 elderly people in Arak city sanitarium who were included in sample research ,and randomly allocated in two groups of intervention (n=39) and controls (n=33) were classified. Group intervention program designed poetry therapy group and 12 sessions of 60 minutes was carried out for 6 weeks. Without special intervention group participated in regular team meetings. Additionally, the data collection tools were the questionnaire, the demographic information and the cognitive status questionnaire (AMT). To analyze and collect data, chi-square and t-tests and paired t- test were used.

  Results : Findings of this study showed a significant difference between pre and post intervention, where the cognitive status mean score in experimental group increased from 7/17 to 7/38 (p< 0/01). It means that cognative status increase by means of poetry therapy teqnique, but no significant difference was observed in the control group (p>0/07).

  Conclusion: According to this study we can say that a group poetry therapy is effective on cognitive status . It is recommended to use such an easy and low cost skill at nursing homes and even your own houses to promote mental health and cognitive status .