EFFECTIVENESS OF SPIRITUAL INTERVENTION ON REDUCING DISTRESS IN MOTHERS OF CHILDREN WITH CANCER

Background: The consequence of the affection of a child by cancer on the distress of the parents and his family members is not less than of the same on the quality of his own life. The aim of this research is to study the effectiveness of spiritual intervention on reducing distress in mothers of children with cancer. Method: This study is a kind of semi-trial projects. For examining the hypothesis of the research, twelve mothers of children with cancer whose children had been hospitalized in Imam Hussein hospital in Tehran, were selected randomly and were given psychotherapy based on spiritual intervention. The intervention was taught and carried out daily during six sessions of 90 minutes. Levels of distress of mothers in the first session before treatment and then in third and fifth sessions were evaluated with the assessment of distress questionnaire, Kessler(k10) .Three weeks after the last session of the intervention, the level of distress of mothers was evaluated with the same questionnaire again; then the results were analyzed statistically. For analyzing data, the method of repeated measurement was used. Results: The results showed that spiritual interventions were effective in reducing distress in mothers of children with cancer. Conclusion: Psychotherapy based on the spiritual intervention is deemed an important topic in respect of holistic planning in protection of mothers of children with cancer and need to be noticed more by the experts and concerned authorities and the psychology departments of the medical centers.