Implementation of Spiritual Care in the Chronically Ill Population for Depression Reduction in the United States.

The purpose of this project was to implement intentional spiritual care in a community population with chronic illness in the United States to reduce risk of depression. A convenience sample (n = 10) of members of a congregation participated in scheduled spiritual care for 12 weeks. The PHQ-9 depression screening tool was given pre and postimplementation to evaluate efficacy of the spiritual care sessions on risk of depression. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected. All participants identified as having at least one chronic illness and considered themselves to be spiritual. Initial PHQ-9 scores indicated all participants had mild to moderately severe risk of depression. Postimplementation PHQ-9 scores indicated a decrease in score ranging from no risk to moderate risk of depression. Postimplementation PHQ-9 scores indicated a decrease in depression score of 2.8 points on average. The paired samples t-test result for the before versus after PHQ-9 were statistically significant with p < .01 and t(9) = 4.882. During this project, no participant experienced an increase or worsening of their illness. These results showed that identifying individual spiritual needs and incorporating intentional spiritual care can reduce the risk of depression and decrease exacerbation episodes in chronically ill patients.