title: Mental health status among the staff of harm reduction centers.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Creating a supportive environment encourages charity services to help risk groups and individuals which has magnificent impacts on reducing their harm.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  According to this plan, the purpose of this study was to investigate the mental health status in the staff of harm reduction centers.
  
  
  METHODS
  The clustered sample of this comparative study consisted of 49 staff of harm reduction centers. The study was supported by the United Nations Development Program in Tehran, Iran. The participants completed GHQ-28 and DASS-21 questionnaires along with sociologic forms and the results were evaluated by descriptive statistics indexes and independent sample t-test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  One-hundred percent of the participants in this study showed the symptoms of psychological disorders, and approximately 16 percent suffered from moderate to high degree of anxiety, depression and stress. The level of anxiety (P ˂ 0.04) and stress (P ˂ 0.01) in the younger staff (less than 40 years) was significantly higher than older staff (more than 40 years old). In addition, somatic symptoms (P ˂ 0.05) and social withdrawal (P ˂ 0.01) were significantly higher in women than men.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Accordingly, major mental disorders in the staff of harm reduction centers, especially women and younger people need to be considered more than before.
authors: AIDS Prevention and Control Committee, Welfare Organization State, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors: Majid
authors: M
authors: Rezazade
authors: Department of Human Sciences, Shahed University, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors: Zeynab
authors: Z
authors: Lashani
authors: Behavioral Sciences Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors: Khodabakhsh
authors: K
authors: Ahmadi
keywords: Anxiety; Depression; Harm Reduction; Mental Health; Substance-Related Disorders