Using peer support to strengthen mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a review (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahul Suresh ◽  
Armaghan Alam ◽  
Zoe Karkossa
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Peer Support ◽  
Health Anxiety ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Mental Health Resource ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Anxiety Depression

BACKGROUND The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant impact on society’s overall mental health with a notable effect on healthcare providers. To manage this global crisis, governments have had to implement numerous measures such mandated lockdowns and physical distancing to minimize the risk of overloading healthcare systems. Altogether, these measures have contributed to higher levels of anxiety, depression, insomnia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other metrics indicating worsening mental health. Unfortunately, the availability of crucial mental health resources and support remains scarce during this time as services attempt to transition to an effective online delivery model. Peer support, which is peer-to-peer provided social and emotional support, is an underutilized and effective mental health resource that is easily delivered/accessed in-person by members within a social distancing bubble, or virtually across different bubbles. OBJECTIVE This review aims to summarize the toll that this pandemic has had on society’s mental health as found in peer-reviewed literature from October 2019 to March 2021, as well as suggest the utility of peer support to address these needs. Lastly, we provide strategies to effectively deliver peer support so that members of the community can better support one another during these unprecedented times. METHODS References for this review were chosen through searches of PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar for articles published between October 2019 and March 2021 that used the terms: “coronavirus”, “COVID-19”, “mental health”, “anxiety”, “depression”, “isolation”, “mental health resources”, “peer support”, “online mental health resources”, and “healthcare workers”. Articles resulting from these searches and relevant references cited in those articles were reviewed. Articles published in English, French and Italian were included. RESULTS As stated in peer-reviewed literature, this pandemic has ubiquitously worsened the mental health of populations across the world, which is further exacerbated by extended periods of lockdown. Peer support has been demonstrated to yield positive effects on the mental health of a wide variety of recipients, and it can be provided through numerous accessible mediums such as web/mobile applications, video-conferencing software, workshops, telephone services, and student programs. CONCLUSIONS The provision of peer support can be very beneficial for improving mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic and may be an effective tool should similar events arise in the future. CLINICALTRIAL N/A

scholarly journals Using Peer Support to Strengthen Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rahul Suresh ◽  
Armaghan Alam ◽  
Zoe Karkossa
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Peer Support ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Health Anxiety ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
Social And Emotional ◽  
Mental Health Resource ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Anxiety Depression

Background: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had a significant impact on society's overall mental health. Measures such as mandated lockdowns and physical distancing have contributed to higher levels of anxiety, depression, and other metrics indicating worsening mental health. Peer support, which is peer-to-peer provided social and emotional support, is an underutilized and effective mental health resource that can potentially be used to ameliorate mental health during these times.Objective: This review aims to summarize the toll that this pandemic has had on society's mental health as found in peer-reviewed literature from October 2019 to March 2021, as well as suggest the utility of peer support to address these needs.Methods: References for this review were chosen through searches of PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar for articles published between October 2019 and March 2021 that used the terms: “coronavirus,” “COVID-19,” “mental health,” “anxiety,” “depression,” “isolation,” “mental health resources,” “peer support,” “online mental health resources,” and “healthcare workers.” Articles resulting from these searches and relevant references cited in those articles were reviewed. Articles published in English, French and Italian were included.Results: This pandemic has ubiquitously worsened the mental health of populations across the world. Peer support has been demonstrated to yield generally positive effects on the mental health of a wide variety of recipients, and it can be provided through numerous accessible mediums.Conclusions: Peer support can overall be beneficial for improving mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic and may be an effective tool should similar events arise in the future, although the presence of a few conflicting studies suggests the need for additional research.

scholarly journals P119: Health care utilization by patients presenting to the emergency department with mental health complaints

CJEM ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (S1) ◽  
pp. S118
Author(s):  
C. Thompson ◽  
S.L. McLeod ◽  
A. Sandre ◽  
B. Borgundvaag
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Emergency Department ◽  
Peer Support ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
Mental Healthcare ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
Care Utilization ◽  
Health Resource ◽  
Convenience Sample ◽  
Mental Health Resource

Introduction: Emergency department (ED) visits for mental health and addiction related complaints are common and appear to be increasing. It is believed these patients come to the ED requiring urgent assessment either because they do not have a primary care or psychiatric healthcare provider or access to their provider is not available in a timely fashion. The objective of this study was to describe healthcare utilization in the previous 12 months by patients presenting to the ED with a mental health complaint. Methods: Between April-November 2016, a convenience sample of adult (≥18 years) patients presenting to an academic ED (annual census 65,000) with a mental health and/or addictions complaint were invited to complete a paper-based survey to determine their usage of ten different mental healthcare resources over the previous 12 months. The questionnaire was pilot-tested and peer-reviewed for feasibility and comprehension. Results: Of the 134 patients who completed the survey, mean (SD) age was 37.9 (15.7) years and 64 (47.8%) were male. Only 7 (5.2%) patients did not access any mental health resource in the previous 12 months, and the most commonly accessed resource was hospital EDs (102, 76.1%), with 24 (23.5%) of these patients using the ED at least 6 times. Patients also accessed a variety of other mental health resources, with 28 (20.9%) seeing their family physician, 20 (14.9%) seeing their psychiatrist/psychologist, and 61 (45.5%) seeing both in the previous 12 months. Only 6 (5.9%) patients used the ED exclusively for a mental health related complaint. By comparison, respondents accessed other specific mental health resources such as crisis centres (19, 14.2%), helplines (34, 25.4%), and peer-support groups (24, 17.9%) less often. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the ED is the most commonly used mental health resource for this population. However, these patients also frequently access family physicians and psychiatrists/psychologists, with community resources such as crisis centres, helplines, and peer-support being used less often. This suggests that lack of timely access to other mental health resources may be the primary motivation for accessing the ED.

scholarly journals Assessing the Feasibility of Providing a Family Skills Intervention, “Strong Families”, for Refugee Families Residing in Reception Centers in Serbia

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (9) ◽  
pp. 4530
Author(s):  
Aala El-Khani ◽  
Karin Haar ◽  
Milos Stojanovic ◽  
Wadih Maalouf
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Parenting Practices ◽  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Emotional Challenges ◽  
Refugee Families ◽  
Quantitative Results ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Family Mental Health ◽  
Anxiety Depression

War exposure and forced displacement threatens the wellbeing of caregivers and their children, leaving them at risk of negative outcomes, such as elevated rates of anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The importance of engaged, responsive and stable parenting for positive child wellbeing has been documented across diverse cultural and economic backgrounds. Despite the higher need for caregivers to be nurturing in challenging settings, they struggle to provide adequate support for their children due to lack of resources or their inability to deal with their own emotional challenges. A feasibility study was conducted of a new, open-access and light-touch family skills intervention, Strong Families (for families in humanitarian and challenged settings) on refugee families residing in Reception Centers in Serbia. Questionnaires and interviews were completed by participating caregivers and facilitators. Qualitative results indicated that the intervention was feasible to run in this humanitarian context, that caregivers viewed the intervention as culturally acceptable and complemented the quantitative results that showed promise for enhancing child behavior and family functioning tested indicators. Despite being a light intervention, Strong Families indicated improvement on child mental health, parenting practices and parent and family adjustment skills. Prioritizing family mental health and functioning as a primary need that parallels that of accessing physical medical care, sanitation and clean water must be the definitive next step in humanitarian aid.

scholarly journals The Evolution of Young People's Mental Health during COVID-19: Evidence from four Low-and-Middle-Income-Countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine Porter ◽  
Annina Hittmeyer ◽  
Marta Favara ◽  
Douglas Scott ◽  
Alan Sánchez
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Young People ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Health Anxiety ◽  
Infection Rates ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Middle Income Countries ◽  
Food Insecure Households ◽  
Anxiety Depression ◽  
Low And Middle Income

Background Though COVID-19 presents less risk to young people of serious morbidity or mortality, the resulting economic crisis has impacted their livelihoods. There is relatively little evidence on young people's mental health in Low-and-Middle-Income-Countries (LMICs) as the pandemic has progressed. Methods Two consecutive phone-surveys (August/October and November/December 2020) in Ethiopia, India, Peru and Vietnam interviewed around 9,000 participants of a 20-year cohort study who grew up in poverty (now aged 19 and 26). We investigate how young people's mental health has evolved in the four countries during the pandemic. Rates of (at least mild) anxiety (depression) measured by GAD-7 (PHQ-8) were compared across countries; between males/females, and food secure/food insecure households. Results Overall, rates of at least mild anxiety (depression) significantly decreased in all countries but Ethiopia as infection rates fell. However, young people in food insecure households report high rates of anxiety and depression and have not shown consistent improvements. Food insecure households are poorer, and have significantly more children (p<0.05) except in Ethiopia. Conclusions Food insecurity has increased during the COVID-19 pandemic and is negatively associated with young people's mental health. Urgent support is needed for the most vulnerable. Keywords COVID-19, mental health, anxiety, depression, food insecurity, youth

Therapist with PNES, USA

2020 ◽  
pp. 282-286
Author(s):  
Markus Reuber ◽  
Gregg H. Rawlings ◽  
Steven C. Schachter
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Private Practice ◽  
Epileptic Seizures ◽  
Mental Health Disorders ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
The World ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Health Disorders ◽  
Anxiety Depression

This chapter examines the personal experience of a Therapist with Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures (PNES). As a Therapist in private practice, the Therapist strongly believed that to end the stigma of mental health conditions, she needed to own her own mental health disorders. The Therapist could not sit across from her clients every day and tell them not to be ashamed of their debilitating Anxiety, Depression, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and yet hide her own mental illness from the world. As such, the therapist spoke openly on social media about mental health and her own journey, and the Therapist shared positive messages about the disorders she treated—that is, until the therapist’s own experience crossed over from the garden variety “Anxiety and Depression” that she saw every day into a much less widely known disorder, PNES. Then, the Therapist became less of a Therapist and more of a patient, trying to maintain some sort of sanity and perspective afforded to her from her years of training as a therapist.

scholarly journals Disability, violence, and mental health among Somali refugee women in a humanitarian setting

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mazeda Hossain ◽  
Rachel Pearson ◽  
Alys McAlpine ◽  
Loraine Bacchus ◽  
Sheru W. Muuo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Functional Disability ◽  
Health Anxiety ◽  
Poor Mental Health ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Refugee Women

Abstract Background There is limited evidence on the relationship between disability, experiences of gender-based violence (GBV), and mental health among refugee women in humanitarian contexts. Methods A cross-sectional analysis was conducted of baseline data (n = 209) collected from women enrolled in a cohort study of refugee women accessing GBV response services in the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya. Women were surveyed about GBV experiences (past 12 months, before the last 12 months, before arriving in the refugee camps), functional disability status, and mental health (anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress), and we explored the inter-relationship of these factors. Results Among women accessing GBV response services, 44% reported a disability. A higher proportion of women with a disability (69%) reported a past-year experience of physical intimate partner violence and/or physical or sexual non-partner violence, compared to women without a disability (54%). A higher proportion of women with a disability (32%) experienced non-partner physical or sexual violence before arriving in the camp compared to women without a disability (16%). Disability was associated with higher scores for depression (1.93, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.54–3.33), PTSD (2.26, 95% CI 0.03–4.49), and anxiety (1.54, 95% CI 0.13–2.95) after adjusting for age, length of encampment, partner status, number of children, and GBV indicators. Conclusions A large proportion of refugee women seeking GBV response services have disabilities, and refugee women with a disability are at high risk of poor mental health. This research highlights the need for mental health and disability screening within GBV response programming.

Adolescent Exposure to Violence and Adult Anxiety, Depression, and PTSD

2017 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-201
Author(s):  
Herbert C. Covey ◽  
Leah McCoy Grubb ◽  
Robert J. Franzese ◽  
Scott Menard
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Early Adulthood ◽  
Exposure To Violence ◽  
Health Problems ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Parental Violence ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Anxiety Depression ◽  
Adolescent Exposure

The present study investigates how adolescent exposure to violence (AEV), in the form of parental physical abuse, witnessing parental violence, and exposure to violence in the neighborhood, is related to adult anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder, controlling for more general adolescent violent victimization and for self-reports and parent reports of mental health problems in adolescence, on a national household-based probability sample of individuals who were adolescents in the mid-1970s and who were followed through early adulthood in the early 2000s. The results suggest that AEV is associated with mental health problems in adolescence but not, controlling for other variables, in adulthood, but there is continuity in mental health problems associated with AEV from adolescence to adulthood.

scholarly journals Impact of Jointly Using an e–Mental Health Resource (Self-Management And Recovery Technology) on Interactions Between Service Users Experiencing Severe Mental Illness and Community Mental Health Workers: Grounded Theory Study

10.2196/25998 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (6) ◽  
pp. e25998
Author(s):  
Anne Williams ◽  
Ellie Fossey ◽  
John Farhall ◽  
Fiona Foley ◽  
Neil Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Grounded Theory ◽  
Community Mental Health ◽  
Severe Mental Illness ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
Community Mental Health Services ◽  
Discovery Process ◽  
Mental Health Resource

Background e–Mental health resources are increasingly available for people who experience severe mental illness, including those who are users of community mental health services. However, the potential for service users (SUs) living with severe mental illness to use e–mental health resources together with their community mental health workers (MHWs) has received little attention. Objective This study aims to identify how jointly using an interactive website called Self-Management And Recovery Technology (SMART) in a community mental health context influenced therapeutic processes and interactions between SUs and MHWs from their perspective. Methods We conducted a qualitative study using a constructivist grounded theory methodology. Data were collected through individual semistructured interviews with 37 SUs and 15 MHWs who used the SMART website together for 2 to 6 months. Data analysis involved iterative phases of coding, constant comparison, memo writing, theoretical sampling, and consultation with stakeholders to support the study’s credibility. Results A substantive grounded theory, discovering ways to keep life on track, was developed, which portrays a shared discovery process arising from the SU-worker-SMART website interactions. The discovery process included choosing to use the website, revealing SUs’ experiences, exploring these experiences, and gaining new perspectives on how SUs did and could keep their lives on track. SUs and MHWs perceived that their three-way interactions were enjoyable, beneficial, and recovery focused when using the website together. They experienced the shared discovery process as relationship building—their interactions when using the website together were more engaging and equal. Conclusions Jointly using an e–mental health resource elicited recovery-oriented interactions and processes between SUs and MHWs that strengthened their therapeutic relationship in real-world community mental health services. Further work to develop and integrate this novel use of e–mental health in community mental health practice is warranted.

scholarly journals Socio-economic disadvantage and resource distribution for mental health care; a model proposal and example application for Victoria, Australia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Meadows ◽  
Frances Shawyer ◽  
Shrinkhala Dawadi ◽  
Brett Inder ◽  
Joanne Enticott
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Economic Disadvantage ◽  
Health Resource ◽  
Epidemiological Evidence ◽  
Mental Health Resource ◽  
Illustrative Application

The attached pre-print (accepted manuscript ) paper describes an application of available epidemiological evidence in guiding the adjustment of mental health resources to areas. Described with an illustrative application in Victoria, Australia. We have also provided our research data as a supplementary spreadsheet to showcase our analytic approach (the spreadsheet cam also easily be adapted to calculate mental health resource adjustments in other states and territories, or nationally).

scholarly journals Socio-economic disadvantage and resource distribution for mental health care; a model proposal and example application for Victoria, Australia

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham Meadows ◽  
Frances Shawyer ◽  
Shrinkhala Dawadi ◽  
Brett Inder ◽  
Joanne Enticott
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Health Resources ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Economic Disadvantage ◽  
Health Resource ◽  
Epidemiological Evidence ◽  
Working Paper ◽  
Mental Health Resource ◽  
Illustrative Application

The attached pre-print (working paper) paper describes an application of available epidemiological evidence in guiding the adjustment of mental health resources to areas. Described with an illustrative application in Victoria, Australia. We have also provided our research data as a supplementary spreadsheet to showcase our analytic approach (the spreadsheet cam also easily be adapted to calculate mental health resource adjustments in other states and territories, or nationally).

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