Health, spirituality and Covid-19: Themes and insights.

Current researches reveal the intimate link between health and spirituality. Among vulnerable populations, spirituality serves a critical purpose in a person's well-being. One of the many established values of spirituality is that it helps people to deal with major life stressors. This has become more pronounced as the world grapples with the challenges brought by the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper explores the themes and insights from recent scholarly articles on health and spirituality as well as highlights the importance of spiritual care to human well-being. © Crown copyright 2020.

To the Editor

The recently published editorial mentioned that ‘the world needs an enquiry to learn as many lessons as possible’ to help control the pandemic. Indeed, the meaningful insights and thoughtful solutions proffered by current researches will help us to successfully navigate the unchartered waters of COVID-19. A critical review of recently published peer-reviewed researches revealed that although we give importance to physical and mental health, we must also consider spiritual well-being as a critical component of holistic care.

Empirical evidence shows that spirituality has a direct link to a person’s well-being. ‘Beliefs and practices are commonly used in medicine to cope with illness and other stressful life changes. The possible benefits [of spiritual beliefs] to mental health and well-being have physiological consequences that impact physical health, affect the risk of disease, and influence response to treatment.’ As such, spiritual care forms part of the human psyche and is a critical component of human care, health and well-being for families, patients and healthcare workers. Furthermore, spiritual care which is demonstrated through compassion and empathy puts a person at ease and provides much needed relief during periods of heightened stress, distress and anxiety. Hence, belief in the sacred or divine and the consequent spiritual experience leads to positive psychological states of peace, healing, contentment, hope and joy.

Table 1 presents an overview of the scholarly articles that investigated the interplay between spirituality and responses to COVID-19 and were published from December 2019 until September 2020. Employing Boolean search ‘health’, ‘spirituality’ and ‘Covid-19’ on EBSCO Discovery Service as well as limiting the results to peer-reviewed articles, the researcher initially gathered 44 journal articles. However, after critical review, only 13 scholarly papers fit the main criteria and were included in this study.

Table 1

Overview of themes and insights from recent studies on health, spirituality and Covid-19

Number of peer-reviewed articles	Themes	Insights
Three	Experiences and challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic	The Covid-19 pandemic significantly altered the normal way of life and brought massive challenges to the public. However, spirituality can be a resource for people to cope with and deal with stress.
Five	Novel approaches and management of the COVID-19 pandemic	Collaboration among health practitioners, religious organizations and the public is critical to the timely and effective management of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is an urgent need to develop and implement programs that cater to physical, mental and spiritual well-being. Research shows that spirituality provides critical support for positive mental health during stressful situations.
Five	Spiritual care during the COVID-19 pandemic	Spiritual care is needed by persons struggling with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Empathy from family and friends contribute to a person’s positive well-being.

Although the world reels from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the specter of uncertainty, special attention should be given to the most vulnerable members of the population, namely the sick and the marginalized as they continue to deal with a major life stressor. Congruent with the insights from recent studies on health, spirituality and Covid-19, the researcher reiterates the need for holistic care. This includes, among others, spiritual care which positively contributes to well-being. Since ‘charity begins at home,’ family members can dispense spiritual care to each other through purposeful communication anchored upon empathy. In the public sphere, educational institutions and medical communities can also provide spiritual care by showing compassion to those who are struggling with physical and mental health.

Lastly, the limited number of researches on the role of spirituality in physical and mental well-being during the pandemic is an opportunity and invitation for researchers to consider further enquiries using the lens of spirituality and thus explore novel solutions to the on-going struggle against Covid-19.