Social Isolation - Definition, Coping Mechanism and Nursing Management

Definition of Social Isolation

Social isolation is a condition when an individual experiences a decline or even completely unable to interact with other people and their surroundings. Patients may feel rejected, and unable to establish meaningful relationships with others (Keliat, et al, 2009).

Social isolation is one's self defense against others and the environment which causes anxiety to oneself by withdrawing physically and psychologically. Social isolation is a disruption in relationships which is an individual mechanism against something that threatens themselves by avoiding interaction with others and the environment. Social isolation is an effort to avoid communication with others, because they feel they have lost close relationships and do not have the opportunity to share their feelings, thoughts and failures (Rusdi, 2013).

Process of Social Isolation

One of the social relations disorders including withdrawal behavior or social isolation caused by feelings of worthlessness that can be experienced by clients with a background full of problems, tension, disappointment and anxiety. Feelings of worthlessness make it more difficult for clients to develop relationships with others. As a result the client becomes regression or backward, experiences a decrease in activity and a lack of attention to appearance and personal hygiene. Clients are increasingly immersed in the interweaving of the appearance and behavior of the past and behavior that is not in accordance with reality, so that the resulting further hallucinations (Dalami, et al, 2009).

Signs and Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of social isolation can be assessed from client expressions that show negative judgments about social relationships and are supported by observational data:
a. Subjective data
Patients reveal about:
1) Feeling lonely
2) Feeling of insecurity
3) Feeling bored and time feels slow
4) Inability to concentrate
5) Feelings are rejected

b. Objective data
1) Lots of silence
2) Don't want to talk
3) Be alone
4) Don't want to interact
5) Look sad
6) Less eye contact
7) Flat face

Coping Mechanism

Individuals who experience maladiptive social responses use various mechanisms in an effort to overcome anxiety. The mechanism is related to two specific types of relationship problems (Stuart, 2006). Coping related to antisocial personality disorder includes projection, spliting and degrading of others, coping related to spliting threshold personality disorder, reaction formation, projection, isolation, idealization of others, degrading others and projective identification.
In social isolation clients when facing stressors are not able to use effective coping mechanisms. Coping mechanisms used are projections, splitting and degrading others. Projection is moving thoughts or impulses or emotional impulses or desires that can be accepted by others. In people who carry out the coping mechanism of projections, ideas or individual desires will be transferred to others until others who are invited to interact can accept the idea. Splitting is looking at people or situations all good or all bad. In splitting, individuals experience failure in integrating positive and negative qualities in themselves. While degrading others is a coping mechanism by which a person sees himself better and higher than others. Other people are deemed not to have more ability than themselves clients (Townsend, 2009).
According to Stuart (2006), coping sources associated with maladaptive social responses include involvement in extended family relationships, relationships with pets and the use of creativity to express interpersonal stress such as art, music or writing.

Nursing Management

1) Individual and family therapy
The management of social isolation can be done with a strategy of implementing nursing actions on patients better known as the implementation strategy which consists of several implementation strategies including the strategy of implementing patients to teach by interacting gradually and family consisting of each of the four implementation strategies (Badar, 2016)

2) Group activity therapy
According to Stuart and Laraia group activities are acts of nursing on groups and group therapy. Group activity therapy, consisting of 4 types namely perception stimulation, sensory stimulation, reality stimulation, and socialization. Group therapy that is suitable in patients with social isolation is social group activity therapy because the client experiences disruption of social relations (Badar, 2016).
Therapeutic activity group socialization that can be done in patients with social isolation are:
a) Session 1: ability to self-introduction
b) Session 2: ability to get acquainted
c) Session 3: ability to talk with group members
d) Session 4: ability to deliver a particular topic of conversation
e) Session 5: ability to converse personal matters
f) Session 6: ability to cooperate in socialization

Tag : Social Isolation