Abstract
Background: Since anxiety, depression and job satisfaction are considered elements related to mental health, the main objective of the present study is to survey the prison staff on the said elements.
Methods: The population of the study was all of the officially employed staff of the prison. (104 prisons) 80.7% of the persons who filled the questionnaires up were among the disciplinary force staff and the rest were the prison employees. The research questionnaires were Beck depression inventory, Zung anxiety scale and job satisfaction questionnaires that were filled up by the employed persons voluntarily and at their presence.
Results: The results shows that 36.4% were suffering from clinical depression (Beck > 18) out of which 11.4% were suffering from severe depression. 36.8% were suffering from anxiety among which 4.6% have had severe anxiety. 20% of the employees were suffering from clinical depression and anxiety simultaneously. The present researches also revealed that 51.5% of the employees are not satisfied with their occupations. There had existed reverse relation between anxiety and depression with job satisfaction(r = -0.38) & r = -0.30 respectively). The younger employees with less work record have more tendencies toward depression. 70% of the depressed people were willing to leave their jobs while the mentioned figure had been 48% for non-depressed employees. Moreover, 71 % of the people who had anxiety were willing to leave their occupations while the figure has been 49% for non-anxiety people.
Conclusion: In conclusion, the findings of the present research show that there is counter relation between mental health of the employees with their efficiency and job satisfaction. It is required, for this reason, the managers and directors to pay enough care and attention to mental health and individual organizational factors that are effective on their mental health to increase the staff efficiency.