Mental Health Status Among the Staff of Harm Reduction Centers

BACKGROUND: Creating a supportive environment encourages charity services to help risk groups and individuals which has magnificent impacts on reducing their harm. OBJECTIVES: According to this plan, the purpose of this study was to investigate the mental health status in the staff of harm reduction centers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The clustered sample of this comparative study consisted of 49 staff of harm reduction centers. The study was supported by the United Nations Development Program in Tehran, Iran. The participants completed GHQ-28 and DASS-21 questionnaires along with sociologic forms and the results were evaluated by descriptive statistics indexes and independent sample t-test. RESULTS: One-hundred percent of the participants in this study showed the symptoms of psychological disorders, and approximately 16 percent suffered from moderate to high degree of anxiety, depression and stress. The level of anxiety (P ˂ 0.04) and stress (P ˂ 0.01) in the younger staff (less than 40 years) was significantly higher than older staff (more than 40 years old). In addition, somatic symptoms (P ˂ 0.05) and social withdrawal (P ˂ 0.01) were significantly higher in women than men. CONCLUSIONS: Accordingly, major mental disorders in the staff of harm reduction centers, especially women and younger people need to be considered more than before.