Transferability of Psychological Interventions from Disaster-Exposed Employees to Healthcare Workers Working during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: The COVID-19 Pandemic had a significant negative impact on the mental health of healthcare workers. Evidence-based interventions that could be used to mitigate this impact are lacking in the literature. This review aims to evaluate psychological interventions used for employees following previous disasters and assess the transferability of these interventions to a healthcare setting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Intervention information from a previously published systematic review of the literature published up to 2015 was extracted, and an additional search of studies published from 2015-2020 was conducted. Studies were assessed for transferability using a checklist derived from the PIET-T process model. Results: Interventions from eighteen studies were assessed for transferability (including three studies identified in an updated literature search). Interventions established as most transferable included resilience training, meditation/mindfulness interventions, and cognitive behavioural therapy. Psychological debriefing was transferable but as it is contrary to current recommendations is not deemed appropriate for adoption. Implications: Several existing interventions have the potential to be utilised within the COVID-19 context/pandemic. More research needs to be undertaken in this area to assess these interventions upon transfer.

Social Ostracism Paradigms O’Cam, O’Train, Cyberball: the Experience of Pilot Research (Russian Federation)

Objective. Approbation of techniques that allow simulating a situation of social ostracism (ignoring, exclusion, rejection). Background. Social ostracism can be fleeting or manifest itself in a chronic protracted form, leading to depression, causing a sense of loss of meaning in life, and in extreme cases results in an antisocial reaction. The study of this phenomenon in the realities of Russian reality poses a number of theoretical (lack of an established theoretical basis) and, as a consequence, methodological problems for domestic scientists. Study design. Three experiments were conducted with different scenarios and methods of simulating inclusion/exclusion conditions, the technique of psychological debriefing was used. Threatened Needs Scale-Ostracism (Boykina, 2019 adaptation) was used in two experiments in two modifications: for adults and children. The calibration of the “Cyberball” inclusion/exclusion conditions parameters was carried out. Participants. The study included three samples: the «O’Train» approbation: N=66, 61 female, 5 -male, M – 18,3; «Cyberball»: N=96, 57 female, 39 male, M – 12,84; «O’Cam»: N=37, 19 female, 18 male, M – 13,6. Measurements. Experimental method, self-reporting methodology Scale of Threatened Needs- Ostracism, computer program “Cyberball” (Williams, Cheung, Choi, 2000), qualitative data analysis. Results. The tested techniques have confirmed their reliability as a method of simulating the situation of social ostracism. Conclusions. The following admission selection criteria are formulated as recommendations: 1) simulation of conditions of ignoring/exclusion/rejection, 2) the least psychological discomfort of the object, 3) viability of the research organization (including the number of participants in the experiment and the reliability of the legend), 4) avoidance of confrontation of participants. The methods tested by the authors can be used both in research and in applied goals, taking into account compliance with the ethical principles of psychological experiment.

Individual Approaches to Prevention and Early Intervention

This chapter provides an overview of individual and small group–based approaches for prevention and early intervention of posttraumatic stress disorder. Using the Institute of Medicine’s classification system for preventive interventions of mental disorders (universal, selective, and indicated), the chapter describes individual and small group early interventions and reviews the effectiveness of these strategies. Specifically, psychological debriefing, psychological first aid, and psychoeducation have been used with varying degrees of success as selective interventions targeting individuals exposed to trauma. However, there is strong empirical support for using cognitive behavioral therapy as an indicated preventive intervention to help symptomatic individuals in the weeks or months following traumatic exposure. A review of the literature also suggests that future research should explore different modes of delivery and devote more attention to determining the best time to intervene after traumatic exposure.

Mental health in biological disasters: From SARS to COVID-19

Background: The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), like severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), provokes fear, anxiety and depression in the public, which further affects mental health issues. Taiwan has used their experience of the SARS epidemic for the management of foreseeable problems in COVID-19 endemic. Aim/Objective: This review summarizes issues concerning mental health problems related to infectious diseases from current literatures. Results: In suspected cases under quarantine, confirmed cases in isolation and their families, health care professionals, and the general population and related effective strategies to reduce these mental health issues, such as helping to identify stressors and normalizing their impact at all levels of response as well as public information and communication messages by electronic devices. The importance of community resilience was also addressed. Psychological first aid, psychological debriefing, mental health intervention and psychoeducation were also discussed. Issues concerning cultures and religions are also emphasized in the management plans. Conclusion: Biological disaster like SARS and COVID-19 not only has strong impact on mental health in those being infected and their family, friends, and coworkers, but also affect wellbeing in general public. There are evidenced that clear and timely psychoeducation, psychological first aid and psychological debriefing could amileorate negative impact of disaster, thus might also be helpful amid COVID-19 pandemic.

USING OF BODY-ORIENTED PSYCHOTHERAPY AS ONE OF THE METHODS IN WORKING WITH CHILDREN AND FAMILIES WHO HAVE SURVIVED TRAUMATIC EVENTS

In the article it has been considered and substantiated the theoretical and methodological foundations of the organization of group forms of work with psychotrauma in persons who have suffered as a result of hostilities, based on the introduction of methods of body-oriented psychotherapy. Body-oriented psychotherapy expands the possibilities of psychotherapeutic influence by considering the individual in the unity of its psychosocial and biological functioning. Group methods in working with post-traumatic stress disorders in working with children and families in difficult life situations due to hostilities are a system of psychotherapeutic influence that optimally combines body-oriented psychotherapy with elements of symbol drama, psychological debriefing, behavioral methods of psychotherapy, dancemovement psychotherapy, art therapy, psycho training, pharmacotherapy and other methods aimed at working with clinical manifestations of psychotrauma. The method of body-oriented psychotherapy in work with children and families affected by traumatic events can be a leader, both in working with distant clinical manifestations and to prevent the development of PTSD, in dealing with mental and physical aspects of functioning, resolving intrapersonal conflicts; determining the level of adequacy of self-perception and self-esteem; reducing the level of personal anxiety, mental tension, emotional lability. Its using helps children and families who have experienced traumatic events, with the help of motor psychotechnics to more accurately recognize and verbalize their own emotions, relive their past emotional experiences, thereby expanding the scope of self-knowledge and forming a more emotionally beneficial attitude. In addition, it makes a significant contribution to the further development of ideas about the mechanism of therapeutic action of psychotherapy, as changes that occur with clients (children and families who have experienced traumatic actions) and are the ultimate goal of psychotherapeutic effects affect different levels of body and personality.