Life Skills Training on Improving Quality of Life and General Health of Clients at Imam Khomeini Relief Committee in Shaft and Fouman Cities

Imam Khomeini relief committee as a supportive organization, sponsors many clienteles. Many problems and difficulties of life today are inevitable for people in the community, especially those in the community covered by the relief committee, are always struggling with problems because of poverty and other issues. It seems necessary to developing and strengthening the skills and abilities that that in difficult circumstances guarantee the mental health of these individuals and increase their satisfaction and quality of life. Given the chronic poverty and social harms of these people, it is necessary to implement interventions to improve the quality of life and their general health. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of life skills training program on improving the quality of life and general health of families under the auspices of Imam Khomeini relief committee.

To achieve this aim, a quasi–experimental research with pre–test post–test design with control group was used. Among all families covered by Fouman and Shaft cities Imam Khomeini relief committee in the 2015–2016, 32 people chose. They had the lowest score in quality of life and the highest scores in mental health respectively in the questionnaire consisted of 26–World Health Organization quality of life instrument–short form and 28–General Health Questionnaire (GHQ–28). They were selected purposely/ randomly and divided into two groups of 16 people (experimental and control). Ten sessions of life skills group training were performed on experimental group in daily basis for 2 hours. The types of skills taught in these sessions included: problem solving, decision making, creative thinking, critical thinking, emotional regulation, effective communication, effective interpersonal relationships, coping with stress, empathy and self–awareness. After that, general health and quality of life in participants were measured in three stages. Repeated measures analysis of variance was used to examine the research objectives for data processing by SPSS–20 software.

In this study, 9 women (56.2%) and 7 men (43.8%) were included in the experimental group. Also, for the control group, 10 men (62.5%) and 6 women (37.5%) were present. Chi–square test with Yates correction to compare gender distribution between the two groups of experimental and control subjects showed no significant difference in the frequency distribution of gender (χ2=0.719,df=1, p=0.13). Results of independent t–test for comparing the mean age of two groups revealed no significant difference between the two groups (t=0.322, df=30, p=0.841). The result of Chi square test for the education variable indicated that there was no difference between the two groups of experimental and control subjects in terms of educational levels (χ2=0.168,df=2, p=0.186). These findings suggest that the two groups of experimentation and control are equivalent. The findings showed that the experimental and control groups had a significant difference in terms of mental health and quality of life in three stages: pre–test, post–test and follow–up (p<0.001). In the mental health variable, the difference in mean of the experimental group in contrast to control group was significant in the pre–test (–1.34), post–test (–20.14) and follow–up (–19.01) (p<0.001). Therefore, the experimental group mean in these three stages was significantly less than the mean of the control group. In addition, in the quality of life variable, the difference between in mean of experimental group in contrast to control group was significant in the pre–test (–11), post–test (–22) and follow–up (–25.73) (p<0.001). As a result, the mean of the control group in the pre–test was significantly higher than the experimental group and the mean of the experimental group in the post–test and follow–up stages was significantly higher than the mean of the control group. Therefore, according to the research findings, life skills training has a positive and significant effect on improving the quality of life and general health of the clienteles in the Imam Khomeini relief committee (p<0.001).

Based on the basic logic of life skills training, it is assumed that these training (psychological capacity) will enhance in subjects and as a result, improve the general and specific capabilities of individuals to effectively and efficiently challenge with psychosocial stresses and situations of difficult life. Life skills training help clienteles by developing and enhancing these abilities to coping and adaptability skills and it eventually improves the quality of life and mental health. Life skills training can be effective in improving the quality of life and general health of clienteles, and the results of interventions are still valid for two months.