Implementation of Adult Resilience Program among Employees having Low income.

Abstract

Background: Dearth of mental health services in Low- and Middle- Income Countries has been largely reported with increased prevalence of mental health issues including in Pakistan. High prevalence of mental health issues such as anxiety and depression has been found among the population of Pakistan and around 37% of the public comes under the bracket of poverty. Individuals belonging to low socio-economic status are at an increased risk of developing mental health concerns. This refers to the need to adapt and implement culturally appropriate preventive interventions that can cater to the promotion of mental health of at-risk individuals. Objective: The objective of the present study was to adapt the Adult Resilience Program for cultural relevance and to examine the preliminary efficacy of this program for employees receiving low income recruited from an organization of Pakistan. Method: The efficacy of the adapted program in Urdu was evaluated by drawing comparison between the experimental and control group (N= 58) including employees having income range below Rs 30,000 per month by Quasi-experimental control group design. Moreover, the outcome measures utilized for this study were in Urdu language. The social validity and fidelity of the program was examined. Results: The results indicated that overall psychological distress obtained through total DASS scores (F=17.636, p<0.001), scores on subscales such as stress (F=20.808, p<0.001), anxiety (F = 6.631, p<0.01), and depression (F=10.491, p<0.01) reported significant reduction in experimental as compared to control group. Further, statistical significance was found for resilience (F= 27.617, p<0.001), problem solving (F= 9.741, p <0.01), self-esteem (F = 18.293, p< 0.001) and financial well-being (F= 6.303, p<0.05) among experimental participants. Linear Mixed Modeling (LMM) analysis has indicated significant time x group interaction for outcome variables. Conclusion: The results obtained from this study establish the preliminary efficacy of utilized Urdu adapted program for an at-risk population in a developing country like Pakistan. It promotes the utilization of culturally adaptive preventive programs for boosting the mental health of vulnerable individuals.