Effectiveness of Community-based Interventions on Women's Mental Health

Mental health has a main role in social productivity. Mental disorders are more prevalent among women. This study aimed to assess the effect of a community-based intervention on mental health in women. This was a community-based participatory research in which the participants included married women aged 18-65 years, lived in the district 22 of Tehran. The experiences of the participants on the processes, structures and concepts of women's mental health were investigated using the grounded theory. Expert's views were asked to identify the needs and priorities. The effectiveness of the designed intervention was assessed using a before-after study with one control group (n=200). The main theme identified through the grounded theory was "seeking comfort”. Identified action-interactions to promote mental health were as "strengthening human essence", "life skills development", and "help seeking". The extracted needs were classified in three groups consisted of structural, context, and process factors. The main priority for developing interventions was “training coping mechanisms to deal with stress". The interventions were implemented through training sessions, booklet, and books within three months. After implementing of participatory intervention, the results showed that the target group used more problem-based coping ways; and the mean score of the planned problem-solving method in the intervention group increased from 11.7 (±3.3) to 14.3 (±1.6) after the intervention. The intervention group showed higher score in the quality of life domains especially mental domain in comparison to the control group. Using qualitative study, we had a deep understanding of mental health promotion processes. Implementation of a community-based participatory approach for needs assessment, priority setting, designing and conducting the intervention helped us to promote mental health in women.