The purpose of this study was to develop the group counseling program for elderly decreasing the level of depression and preventing suicidal ideation and to evaluate the effectiveness of this program. The subjects of this study were 18 elderly people who are older than 65 years old, they were divided into 2 groups: the experimental group(n = 9) and control group(n = 9). The experimental group participated in the group counseling program. The programs of these experimental groups were implemented twice a week for 90-120 minutes per session over 6-week period. But there were no treatments for the control group. The pre-test, the post-test and the follow-up test were implemented in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the program. The instruments used in the study were the Korean Dementia Rating Scale, the Geriatric Depression Scale Short Form-Korean Version and the Scale for Suicidal Ideation. The data were analyzed by Mann-Whitney U Test and Wilcoxon Matched-Pairs Signed Ranks Test. The findings of the study were as follows: The experimental group had significant effects on decreasing the level of depression and the suicidal ideation. Meanwhile the control group were increasing the depression and did not show any significant change in the suicidal ideation. Based on these findings, the limitation of the study was discussed, and further research was suggested.