Evaluation of the Effectiveness of ACT on Resilience in Iranian veterans with Mental Disorders in Hospitals

Abstract

<strong>Background and Objectives</strong>: Psychiatric veterans need effective psychological interventions to improve quality of life and promote resilience to problems. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment group therapy on the resilience of psychiatric veterans. <strong>Methods:</strong> This study was a pilot study using a pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The statistical population was all psychiatric veterans of Iran in 1399 which was selected by multi-stage cluster sampling in Dezful city of Khuzestan province and randomly. Out of 200 people, 40 were selected who received the highest score from Connor Davidson's resilience test, and 30 of them had the necessary criteria and were replaced in two groups of 15 experimental and control. The experimental group participated in 12 group training sessions based on the acceptance and commitment program for 12 weeks while the control group did not receive any intervention. <strong>Results</strong>: The Connor and David Sean Resilience Questionnaire was used to collect data. ACT was performed on the experimental group in eight two-hour sessions per week, then the questionnaire was administered to both experimental and control groups (post-test). The results showed that acceptance and commitment training significantly improves the quality of resilience of psychiatric veterans.(p = .000, F =26.630) <strong>Conclusion</strong>: The analysis of covariance and regression showed that the post-test scores of the experimental group who were treated with ACT increased and this treatment improves the resilience of veterans.