Abstract
Many programs promoting end-of-life planning for healthy older adults focus on the future medical needs of the body, but end-of-life suffering often includes the body and the soul. Soul suffering may involve loss of independence, dignity, meaning, and purpose as well as feelings of isolation, spiritual uncertainty, regrets, and fear of death. Researchers refer to this psychological, relational, and spiritual anguish as existential suffering. While various interventions treat existential suffering for terminal patients, few programs help healthy older adults understand and prepare for existential suffering. This exploratory intervention study sought to measure the existential concerns of healthy older adults and whether an intervention would affect those concerns. The intervention, Your Soul’s Legacy© (Grewe, 2017), was developed to prepare healthy older adults for the ultimate existential concerns of Death, Freedom, Meaninglessness, and Isolation. Quantitative pre- and post-questionnaires sought to identify shifts in concerns by measuring 26 factors associated with end-of-life suffering. Nine participants completed the seven-week intervention and pre- and post-questionnaires. Notable findings indicate shifts in Death concerns, decreases in Freedom concerns, and both increases and decreases in Isolation concerns. The change in Meaninglessness concerns was insignificant. My results indicate a post-interventional shift away from indicators related to existential suffering and toward outcomes of existential health. Future research needs larger heterogeneous samples, validated and reliable assessment tools, and further development of interventions for healthy older adults.