Abstract

Background and Objectives: Being away from the familiar surroundings and family supports, decline in capabilities and skills, and age-related failures can lead to mental problems in the elderly living in nursing homes. This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effectiveness of spiritual-religious psychotherapy on mental distress in the elderly in nursing homes. Methods: The study population of this semi-experimental study with control group and pretest-posttest, consisted of all elderly living in the nursing home of Bandar Abbas, southern Iran in 2016. Samples were selected by convenience sampling and then randomly divided into two groups, experimental and control. Experimental group received spiritual-religion psychotherapy. Data collection instrument was Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales. Data analysis was conducted by multivariate analysis of variance in the SPSS version 22. Results: Spiritual-religious psychotherapy had significant effect in improving depression, anxiety, and stress. Conclusion: Spiritual-religious psychotherapy can serve as an effective approach to improve mental distress in the elderly.