Combining Islamic Spirituality with Mental Wellness in a Religiously-Integrated Curriculum for Muslims
Samaiya Mushtaq, MD, Resident Psychiatrist, UT Southwestern
Lindsey Pershern, MD; UT Southwestern
Carol North, MD; UT Southwestern
Objectives: Muslim populations have historically underutilized mental health services and remain particularly vulnerable to threats to mental wellness. Religiously-integrated educational interventions may be particularly effective at engaging this population. We designed a community psycho-education curriculum integrating principles of Islamic spirituality and current topics in mental wellness with the goal of improving wellness skills and outcomes, connection to faith, and life satisfaction in participants over the course of seven weeks.
Methods: The wellness course consists of seven weekly 75-minute self-development classes. 12 participants voluntarily registered for the course offered from Oct. 4 to Nov. 15, 2017. Four of the classes integrate topics in mental wellness with their analogous Islamic concepts (mindfulness and taqwa, compassion and rahma, gratitude and shukr, and resilience and sabr). The remaining three classes are on identity cohesion, vulnerability and relationships, and a brief introduction to psychiatric disorders. Teaching methods involve didactic lecture, discussion activities, and guided meditations. Didactic lecture includes defining the specific components of each concept, exploring scripture and canonical examples of each topic, and teaching practical ways of developing skills in each area. Group activities involve pair-and-share discussion questions related to the wellness topic, large-group debriefing, and various guided meditations, including mindfulness, compassion, and gratitude meditations.
De-identified pre-surveys were collected prior to the first class to obtain data related to demographics, levels of religiosity and spirituality, and baseline measures of 5 areas: mindfulness, compassion, gratitude, resilience, and life satisfaction. Questions were selected based on their factor loadings from validated scales of these individual wellness areas, including the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale-Revised. 14 questions were designed to also measure skills in each of these five wellness areas. At the end of each of the classes, knowledge retention is measured with a brief questionnaire about the specific topic, with a final post-survey at the end of the seven-week course.
Preliminary review of knowledge-based questionnaires from completed classes suggests good retention of course material and learning of new skills within each area. Preliminary review of pre-surveys suggests that participants at baseline had limited skills related to these wellness domains. Qualitative feedback suggests that this population is particularly receptive to religiously-integrated psycho-education and expect improvement in wellness outcomes from the course.
Strengths and Limitations: This wellness curriculum offers innovative content, uses effective adult learning methods, and is easily reproducible for conducting with other Muslim populations or potentially adapting to other faith traditions. Limitations include relative homogeneity in terms of age and education levels of the current study participants.
Lindsey Pershern, MD; UT Southwestern
Carol North, MD; UT Southwestern
Objectives: Muslim populations have historically underutilized mental health services and remain particularly vulnerable to threats to mental wellness. Religiously-integrated educational interventions may be particularly effective at engaging this population. We designed a community psycho-education curriculum integrating principles of Islamic spirituality and current topics in mental wellness with the goal of improving wellness skills and outcomes, connection to faith, and life satisfaction in participants over the course of seven weeks.
Methods: The wellness course consists of seven weekly 75-minute self-development classes. 12 participants voluntarily registered for the course offered from Oct. 4 to Nov. 15, 2017. Four of the classes integrate topics in mental wellness with their analogous Islamic concepts (mindfulness and taqwa, compassion and rahma, gratitude and shukr, and resilience and sabr). The remaining three classes are on identity cohesion, vulnerability and relationships, and a brief introduction to psychiatric disorders. Teaching methods involve didactic lecture, discussion activities, and guided meditations. Didactic lecture includes defining the specific components of each concept, exploring scripture and canonical examples of each topic, and teaching practical ways of developing skills in each area. Group activities involve pair-and-share discussion questions related to the wellness topic, large-group debriefing, and various guided meditations, including mindfulness, compassion, and gratitude meditations.
De-identified pre-surveys were collected prior to the first class to obtain data related to demographics, levels of religiosity and spirituality, and baseline measures of 5 areas: mindfulness, compassion, gratitude, resilience, and life satisfaction. Questions were selected based on their factor loadings from validated scales of these individual wellness areas, including the Satisfaction with Life Scale and the Cognitive and Affective Mindfulness Scale-Revised. 14 questions were designed to also measure skills in each of these five wellness areas. At the end of each of the classes, knowledge retention is measured with a brief questionnaire about the specific topic, with a final post-survey at the end of the seven-week course.
Preliminary review of knowledge-based questionnaires from completed classes suggests good retention of course material and learning of new skills within each area. Preliminary review of pre-surveys suggests that participants at baseline had limited skills related to these wellness domains. Qualitative feedback suggests that this population is particularly receptive to religiously-integrated psycho-education and expect improvement in wellness outcomes from the course.
Strengths and Limitations: This wellness curriculum offers innovative content, uses effective adult learning methods, and is easily reproducible for conducting with other Muslim populations or potentially adapting to other faith traditions. Limitations include relative homogeneity in terms of age and education levels of the current study participants.