The Application of Spiritual Self-Care Pattern to Increase Resilience in Spouses of Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Background: Caring for war veterans causes suffering and stress in their caregivers. Therefore, it is necessary to use non-pharmacological methods to reduce anxiety and increase the resilience of caregivers. Objectives: The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of spiritual self-care patterns (SSCP) on the resilience of spouses of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Methods: This semi-experimental study was conducted on 30 spouses of veterans with PTSD, who were selected randomly and divided into two groups, including the control group (fifteen people) and the experimental group (fifteen people). For the experimental group, training intervention was implemented by SSCP, while no intervention was performed for the control group. The Conner-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RIS) questionnaire was used to evaluate the level of resilience. Finally, the results obtained before and after the intervention were analyzed using SPSS software version 21 and relevant statistical tests at a significance level of α = 0.05. Results: The results showed that the mean resilience score in the control group before and after the intervention was 46.5 ± 5.7 and 47.0 ± 6.2, respectively, which did not have a significant difference (P = 0.70). This value for the experimental group was 3.8 ± 44.5 and 8.8 ± 62.5, respectively, and the difference in the average of these two scores was statistically significant (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Based on the results, the intervention of training by spiritual self-care pattern (SSCP) can reduce stress and increase the resilience of spouses of veterans with PTSD.