Life Skill Training and Mental Health of Employed Women

Health is not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, but rather, a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being (WHO, 2001). A mentally healthy person is the one who can cope nicely with life problems and changes, is accountable, uses his mental abilities in a proper way, has a good and compatible relationship with others and engages in useful and effective activities. Mental health has a large scope and its status may change during life time (Bolhari, 2002). The latest investigations show that the burden of mental diseases and behavioral disorders such as depression and anxiety is too high in Iran. Although, these diseases encompass years of life lost (YLL) due to premature death, they are at the top of causes of increase in the years of life lived with disability (YLD) especially in females (Naghavi, 2007). Epidemiological studies indicate that depression is one of the most costly diseases of the workforce. Patients with this disorder are 27 times as likely as healthy people to encounter impairment and face an inability in doing their duties. It is estimated that 30% of the absenteeism and decrease in efficiency is due to depression (Kendler, Gardner, & Prescott, 2006; Khadivi, Moezzi, Shaken, & Borjian, 2005). In most of the societies, however, people's knowledge about the related factors, ways of prevention, methods of self-caring and even pharmaceutical and psychological treatments, is poor (Highet, Hickie, & Davenport, 2002; Jorm, 2000). In order to improve mental health and prevent disorders at the community level, World Health Organization (WHO) introduced life skill training program in 1993. This program contains 10 core skills including empathy, effective communication, interpersonal relationship, decision making, problem solving, critical thinking, self-awareness, coping with emotions, creative thinking and coping with stress. To implement this program in various countries such as Iran, training in core skills is on the agenda (Beirami, Ahmad, & Jalali, 2007). Basically, if contents of life skill training program lead to self-knowledge and an increase in participant's psychological ability, it can promote their mental health. In these trainings, which are offered in group form, an atmosphere of certainty about making a sound and soothing relationship is provided. During these trainings, an individual can transfer his learned lessons to a larger community and in return can use other people's experiences and knowledge to soothe himself.Living in this competitive world may expose us to lot of tensions and stresses. Indeed, employees currently tolerate many tensions and conflicts while performing their duties that threaten their mental health and professional competency. Meanwhile, one of the biggest problems of organizations is recruiting and keeping their man power. Thus, only those systems can expect growth and productivity that have invested in training their staff.Life skill training is one of the investments to promote psycho-social health level of the staff. It benefits staffs both personal (private and social) and professional (work) life (Naeini, 2009). Learning and practicing these skills will lead to alteration or reinforcement of attitudes, values and behaviors. It is believed that many mental health problems are preventable when positive and healthy behaviors are obtained (Khalesi & Alikhani, 2003). Since, learning life skills has an important role in improvement of intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships, its training can be a part of secondary prevention program to control many chronic diseases of the present century such as depression and cardiovascular diseases (Ssogolitappeh, Kheyroddin, Aliloo, & Beirami, 2008). In terms of mental health, women are more susceptible than men. Promotion of women's mental health index and their enjoyment of a high quality life have always been emphasized by international organizations. In Turkey, for instance, improvement of women's health status is an important criterion of social development and therefore, authorities pay a special attention to that. …