scholarly journals China’s mental health support in response to COVID-19: progression, challenges and reflection

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yumeng Ju ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Xiaoping Wang ◽  
Weihui Li ◽  
Roger M. K. Ng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Support System ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Psychological Intervention ◽  
Public Mental Health ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Health Support ◽  
Proactive Measures

Abstract The continued spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has a serious impact on everyone across the globe, both physically and psychologically. In addition to proactive measures addressing physical survival needs and health protection, China has launched a mental health support system to cope with the widespread psychological stress during the pandemic and its aftermath. In this debate, the authors attempted to depict and reflect upon the overall framework of China’s mental health support, with particular reference to the psychological intervention in response to COVID-19 over the last few months. Although a lot of effort has been made to meet the mental health needs, the accessibility, acceptability and effectiveness of the support system still have much room for improvement. Therefore, it is very important to re-think the predicament and challenge on ways of enhancing public mental health emergency responses in China. The concepts of universality, timeliness and scientific rigour were proposed as a possible reform in preparation for large-scale natural or man-made disasters in the coming future.

Mental health in subsidized housing: Readiness to assist residents with mental health issues in subsidized housing from the perspectives of housing employees

2021 ◽  
pp. 147332502110276
Author(s):  
Hyejin Jung ◽  
Jose Jaime ◽  
Sharon Lee
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Subsidized Housing ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Health Support ◽  
And Training

People in subsidized housing are likely to suffer from mental health issues. However, little is known about subsidized housing employees’ readiness to address the residents’ mental health needs. This qualitative study explores the perspectives of housing employees on their readiness to assist subsidized housing residents’ mental health needs. A total of 32 subsidized housing employees participated in five focus groups. Thematic analysis revealed four key themes: prevalence of mental health issues, unexpected role as housing employees, multi-level barriers in assisting residents with mental health needs, and the need for mental health support in subsidized housing. Findings highlight the need for integrated care, including social work services in subsidized housing. Social workers may have various potential roles to serve the mental health needs of subsidized housing residents. Also identified was the need for mental health education and training among subsidized housing employees.

The men’s wellbeing project: promoting the well-being and mental health of men

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-189
Author(s):  
Gabriel Abotsie ◽  
Roger Kingerlee ◽  
Andrew Fisk ◽  
Sam Watts ◽  
Rachel Cooke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Physical And Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Public Events ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Health Support

Purpose Comparatively, men have poorer physical and mental health outcomes than women, with a significantly higher suicide rate. Contributory factors are thought to be social and biological, leading to reduced access to health-care services. The study aims to develop and implement community-based support to increase awareness of and access to men’s mental health support networks and groups. Design/methodology/approach The project involved three key work-packages discussed in this paper: raising awareness of men’s mental health needs in health care, educational and community settings; collaboration between National Health Services (NHS) and non-NHS health-care support organisations to build multi-sector partnership working; and developing a supported sports-based community intervention aimed at men living with mental health conditions. The acceptability and feasibility of these work-packages were pragmatically evaluated through mixed-methods surveys and qualitative content analysis. Findings Overall, both community events and sports groups successfully engaged men living with mental health problems. Organisations interested in men’s mental health are continuing to engage in a partnership initiative. Community events were well-attended and received positive feedback, particularly regarding the educative and real-life experiences approach promoted in the events. The sports intervention is feasible and well-accepted by participants, who described feeling supported with their physical and mental health needs, with increased mental well-being reported. Research limitations/implications The main limitations of this project are that the authors only evaluated a football group rather than all work areas. The project collected outcomes relating to participants’ demographics and qualitative reflections of participating in the football group along with a retrospective survey of perceived benefits, but the project did not undertake a pre- and post-comparison of well-being outcomes owing to low completion of these measures. Future work could focus on collecting more pre- and post-measures related to well-being, recovery and inclusion and compare these with men not involved in the football groups or public events. Practical implications This paper discusses the development and feasibility of setting up community-based men’s mental health support networks, involving public events, partnership working and targeted-sports interventions. All initiatives were well-received and successfully attended by men living with mental health conditions. Evaluation of the programme revealed the value placed on education about mental health and the role that community sports interventions may play in men’s mental health care. Social implications This project has demonstrated three different ways of supporting men’s mental health needs in the community. Community public events were held to raise awareness of men’s mental health needs and issues were well-attended and highlighted the need for health promotion and education in this area across all the communities. The men’s football group demonstrated the feasibility of moving mental health support out into a non-clinical and more community arena in a way that men engaged effectively. Finally, the creation of MensNet has bought together disparate multi-sector organisations successfully to lead public health mechanisms to support men’s mental health needs. Originality/value This paper describes a new multi-disciplined approach to supporting health-seeking challenges among men, in particular, how partnership working across NHS and non-NHS sectors can successfully support an identified public health need pragmatically using existing services and organisations.

scholarly journals Structuring mental health support for frontline caregivers during COVID-19: lessons from organisational scholarship on unit-aligned support

BMJ Leader ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 124-127
Author(s):  
Julia DiBenigno ◽  
Michaela Kerrissey
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Personnel ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Organisational Design ◽  
The Us ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Health Support ◽  
Identity Conflicts ◽  
Employee Mental Health

BackgroundAlthough the COVID-19 pandemic exposes frontline caregivers to severe prolonged stresses and trauma, there has been little clarity on how healthcare organisations can structure support to address these mental health needs. This article translates organisational scholarship on professionals working in organisations to elucidate why traditional approaches to supporting employee mental health, which often ask employees to seek assistance from centralised resources that separate mental health personnel from frontline units, may be insufficient under crisis conditions. We identify a critical but often overlooked aspect of employee mental health support: how frontline professionals respond to mental health services. In high-risk, high-pressure fields, frontline professionals may perceive mental health support as coming at the expense of urgent frontline work goals (ie, patient care) and as clashing with their central professional identities (ie, as expert, self-reliant ironmen/women).FindingsTo address these pervasive goal and identity conflicts in professional organisations, we translate the results of a multiyear research study examining the US Army’s efforts to transform its mental health support during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. We highlight parallels between providing support to frontline military units and frontline healthcare units during COVID-19 and surface implications for structuring mental health supports during a crisis. We describe how an intentional organisational design used by the US Army that assigned specific mental health personnel to frontline units helped to mitigate professional goal and identity conflicts by creating personalised relationships and contextualising mental health offerings.ConclusionAddressing frontline caregivers’ mental health needs is a vital part of health delivery organisations’ response to COVID-19, but without thoughtful organisational design, well-intentioned efforts may fall short. An approach that assigns individual mental health personnel to support specific frontline units may be particularly promising.

scholarly journals Understanding the Role of Social Media–Based Mental Health Support Among College Students: Survey and Semistructured Interviews (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piper Vornholt ◽  
Munmun De Choudhury
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
College Students ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Semistructured Interviews ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Health Support

BACKGROUND Mental illness is a growing concern within many college campuses. Limited access to therapy resources, along with the fear of stigma, often prevents students from seeking help. Introducing supportive interventions, coping strategies, and mitigation programs might decrease the negative effects of mental illness among college students. OBJECTIVE Many college students find social support for a variety of needs through social media platforms. With the pervasive adoption of social media sites in college populations, in this study, we examine whether and how these platforms may help meet college students’ mental health needs. METHODS We first conducted a survey among 101 students, followed by semistructured interviews (n=11), of a large public university in the southeast region of the United States to understand whether, to what extent, and how students appropriate social media platforms to suit their struggle with mental health concerns. The interviews were intended to provide comprehensive information on students’ attitudes and their perceived benefits and limitations of social media as platforms for mental health support. RESULTS Our survey revealed that a large number of participating students (71/101, 70.3%) had recently experienced some form of stress, anxiety, or other mental health challenges related to college life. Half of them (52/101, 51.5%) also reported having appropriated some social media platforms for self-disclosure or help, indicating the pervasiveness of this practice. Through our interviews, we obtained deeper insights into these initial observations. We identified specific academic, personal, and social life stressors; motivations behind social media use for mental health needs; and specific platform affordances that helped or hindered this use. CONCLUSIONS Students recognized the benefits of social media in helping connect with peers on campus and promoting informal and candid disclosures. However, they argued against complete anonymity in platforms for mental health help and advocated the need for privacy and boundary regulation mechanisms in social media platforms supporting this use. Our findings bear implications for informing campus counseling efforts and in designing social media–based mental health support tools for college students.

'Place2Be: advancing mental health care in schools' Catherine Roche

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Young People ◽  
Public Mental Health ◽  
Chief Executive ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Memorial Lecture ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Recorded Lecture

Catherine Roche, Chief Executive, Place2Be, recorded on 16 June 2017 at 'The Jack Tizard Memorial Lecture and Conference; Public mental health for children and young people: addressing mental health needs in schools and communities'. ACAMH members can now receive a CPD certificate for watching this recorded lecture.

scholarly journals Confirming validity of The Fear of COVID-19 Scale in Japanese with a nationwide large-scale sample

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. e0246840
Author(s):  
Haruhiko Midorikawa ◽  
Miyuki Aiba ◽  
Adam Lebowitz ◽  
Takaya Taguchi ◽  
Yuki Shiratori ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Factor Model ◽  
Language Version ◽  
Confirmatory Factor ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Health Support ◽  
Psychological Scales ◽  
Socio Demographic Factors ◽  
Fear And Anxiety

Assessing fear and anxiety regarding COVID-19 viral infection is essential for investigating mental health during this epidemic. We have developed and validated a Japanese-language version of The Fear of COVID-19 Scale (FCV-19S) based on a large, nationwide residential sample (n = 6,750) recruited through news and social media responding to an online version of the questionnaire. Data was collected from August 4–25, 2020. Results correlated with K6, GAD-7 and IES-R psychological scales, and T-tests and analysis of variance identified associated factors. All indices indicated the two-factor model emotional fear reactions and symptomatic expressions of fear a better fit for our data than a single-factor model in Confirmatory Factor Analysis (χ2 = 164.16, p<0.001, CFI 0.991, TLI = 0.985, RMSEA = 0.043). Socio-demographic factors identified as disaster vulnerabilities such as female sex, sexual minority, elderly, unemployment, and present psychiatric history associated with higher scores. However, respondent or family member experience of infection risk, or work/school interference from confinement, had greatest impact. Results suggest necessity of mental health support during this pandemic similar to other disasters.

scholarly journals Health professional stress during COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 070-072
Author(s):  
Bennaoui Fatiha ◽  
Ei Idrissi Slitine Nadia ◽  
Rabou Maoulainine Fadl Mrabih
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Professional ◽  
Nursing Staff ◽  
Psychological Intervention ◽  
University Hospital ◽  
First Case ◽  
Professional Stress ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
Mental Health Support ◽  
Health Support

WHO declared the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, caused by SARS-CoV-2, to be a pandemic on March 12, 2020. In Morocco, the first case was reported in March 2nd 2020. The mental health of general population, medical and nursing staff especially has been greatly challenged. The aim of the present article is to explore the stress status of medical and nursing staff associated with exposure to the COVID-19. The medical staff was asked to complete a self-reported questionnaire anonymously. In University Hospital Mohamed VI, in Marrakesh, Morocco. During May 2020. In total, 120 valid questionnaires were collected. Among them, there were 57 residents (47,5%), 30 internes (25%), 22 nurses (19%) and others: medicine students and technical staff. The age was between 23 and 60 years. 15% of professional lived alone, 85% with their family, 74% lived with an old person or with a person having a chronic disease. In our study: the severity of symptoms in 36% of the asked professional, deaths among health professionals in 15%, death of a family member in 14%, the rapid spread of pandemic in 90%, the lack of knowledge in 83%, and finally contamination risk especially if comorbidity associated in 2%. Further risk factors: feelings of being inadequately supported by the hospital in 42%, fear of taking home infection to family members or others in 80%, being isolated, feelings of uncertainty and social stigmatization in 43%. The psychological presentation was the nightmare 19 in %, the insomnia in 48%, the somatization in 18%, the irritability in 22%, the aggressiveness in 14%, the nervousness in 70% and the drowsiness in 5%. During the vulnerability of the individual’s conditions during and after the COVID-19, psychological intervention should be done and a mental health support for the health professional.

'Measuring Mental Health and Wellbeing in Schools: Challenges and opportunities' Prof Miranda Wolpert

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Young People ◽  
Public Mental Health ◽  
Health Needs ◽  
Memorial Lecture ◽  
Mental Health Needs ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Health And Wellbeing ◽  
Recorded Lecture ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities

Recorded on 16 June 2017 at 'The Jack Tizard Memorial Lecture and Conference; Public mental health for children and young people: addressing mental health needs in schools and communities'. ACAMH members can now receive a CPD certificate for watching this recorded lecture.

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