Comparing the Resilience of the Medical Staff During the COVID-19 Pandemic After Yalom Group Psychotherapy and Acceptance and Commitment Group Therapy

The medical staff working on the front-line battle against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are more exposed to mental health risks than the general population. Resilience is the ability to withstand challenging situations and help people defend their mental health against stressors. The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of Yalom and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on medical staff resilience in COVID-19 centers.

The research method was quasi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group. The statistical population includes all 600 medical staff of Hamedan City, Iran, caring for patients with COVID-19 in 2021. Based on the average variance of resilience obtained in previous studies, 45 people were selected by convenience sampling and randomly assigned to two experimental groups (each 15) and one control group (n=15). The experimental groups were divided into Yalom and ACT group psychotherapy, and all three groups responded to the Connor-Davidson resilience scale (CD-RISC) before and after the intervention. The obtained data were analyzed by analysis of covariance in SPSS software, version 25.

Yalom group psychotherapy and ACT group therapy had different effects on the participants’ resilience and are statistically significant since the F statistics (106.722) was significant (P=0.001 and P=0.05, respectively). Based on the results, Yalom group psychotherapy has a better rate of improvement than ACT.

Considering the significant efficacy of Yalom group psychotherapy and its relative ease of implementation compared to ACT, it is possible to employ this intervention to protect the mental health of medical staff during severe epidemics of diseases such as coronavirus.