Effectiveness of Spiritual Therapy on Loneliness Feeling in the Seniors Present at Nursing Homes

Moving away from family can cause psychological and emotional trauma for the elderly. Accordingly, the present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of spiritual therapy on loneliness feeling among the elderly in a nursing home in Isfahan.

The method was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design and a control group. The population of this study included all of the elderly in Sadeghieh nursing home in Isfahan in 2018. The sample of this study included 30 elderly people being selected by purposive sampling and then randomly included in the experimental and control groups (15 elderly people in each group). The experimental group received the therapeutic interventions related to spiritual therapy at eight sessions of 90 minutes every week for two months. Then, the subjects in both groups were re-tested. The used instruments included Russell’s loneliness questionnaire (1996). After collecting the questionnaires and extracting the raw data, the data analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics and analysis of covariance by SPSS23 statistical software at 0.05 error level.

spiritual therapy had a significant effect on loneliness among the elderly in the nursing home (p < 0.001). In this regard, this therapy could reduce loneliness among the elderly in the nursing home. The effect of spiritual therapy on loneliness among the elderly in the nursing home was 53%.

Based on the research findings, spiritual therapy can reduce loneliness among the elderly by the techniques such as taking responsibility, assigning cases to God, strengthening the intention, and deleting negative thoughts.