Religious Practices and Spiritual Well-Being of Schizophrenia: Muslim Perspective

PURPOSE: To explore religious activities and its functions on the spiritual wellbeing of Muslim patients with schizophrenia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted in six schizophrenia inpatients and two female nurses. Document analysis of the standard operating procedure related to patients’ spiritual needs fulfilment and patients’ medical records were also undertaken in order to triangulate data and to get insights about patient spiritual and religious activity. Thematic analysis was used to analyse data. RESULTS: Five themes and 12 sub themes were revealed from the study data. The five themes elicited from the study namely frequency, timing, barriers to perform religious activities, impact on health status and negative effects if not performing the religious activities. Religious activities such as salat and dhikr for schizophrenia inpatients are still performed five times a day and when they are not getting period. Feeling upset, restless, happy, grateful, and when they are missing their family was the common reason why patients perform the religious activities. The main barriers to performing salat and dhikr for example: insufficient prayer tools and Al-Qur’an, as well as patients’ physical conditions. Religious activities such as salat and dhikr positively impact patients’ physical and mental health status, mindfulness, and concentration. Negative impacts physical and emotional are released when patients did not perform salat and dhikr. CONCLUSION: The findings show that salat and dhikr which perform on time and regularly have a positive impact on the physical and mental health of schizophrenia inpatients. The author might recommend the mental health hospital provide adequate worship or prayer equipment (gown and Al-Qur`an) for patients.