Spirituality for Social Isolation in a Patient with Cognitive Impairment: A Case Report

Social isolation is very common and has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To study if spiritual reconnection as part of a multi-component intervention can reduce social isolation in older adults with cognitive impairment.

A longitudinal case study framework was used. A 68-year-old female with mild cognitive impairment presented with social isolation exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. She participated in a telephone-based psychosocial intervention program called Connection Plans for 8 weeks. Motivational interviewing techniques were used to encourage the patient to pick goals to improve the mind, body, and connections. In her connections goal, the patient expressed a desire to make spiritual reconnection. Connecting back to her spirituality was one of the key interventions in this patient. Social isolation, resilience, self-efficacy, and cognition were assessed using standardized rating scales before and after the intervention.

The patient was able to identify goals to enhance connections and physical and mental well-being. She successfully reconnected with her spirituality while maintaining COVID prevention measures. At an 8-week follow-up, compared to the baseline visit there was an improvement in measures of social isolation (22/30 to 14/30, a 36% reduction), resilience (12/20 to 20/20, a 67% improvement), and confidence (4/20 to 16/20, a 300% improvement). No improvement was noted in cognition.

Spiritual reconnection as part of a multi-component intervention may protect against social isolation in older adults with cognitive impairment. Caution must be exercised in reaching this conclusion as this is a report of a single patient. Systematic studies are needed.