Category: Disaster Mental Health
Alexandra Gold, M.A.
Graduate Student
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts
Simon Rego, ABPP, Psy.D.
Chief of Psychology
Montefiore Medical Center
Bronx, New York
Louisa Sylvia, Ph.D.
Psychologist
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts
David Disabato, Ph.D.
Kent State University
Kent, Ohio
Nicole DeTore, Ph.D.
Instructor
Department of Psychiatry
Massachusetts General Hospital
Charlestown, Massachusetts
Tara Powell, M.P.H., Ph.D., MSW
University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Urbana, Illinois
Many healthcare and frontline workers experienced heightened psychological symptoms during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, including increased symptoms of stress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia. Moreover, despite an increase in psychological symptoms, many of these workers continued to provide care and support to their communities through their professional roles. These data raise the question as to whether institutions and community centers are broadly equipped, even outside of the setting of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the tools to “help the helpers,” or those who devote their daily lives to the well-being of the people that they serve. Prior work suggests that short-term psychological interventions can improve the mental well-being of healthcare workers in the context of mental health disasters (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic). Among these, interventions that provide healthcare and frontline workers with tangible skills to handle stressful life experiences may be particularly helpful, such as skills that can increase emotional resilience (e.g., the capacity to recover and grow from stressful life experiences) and bolster positive mood. The goal of this symposium is to highlight a collection of resilience and coping interventions, administered by multi-disciplinary teams, that were specifically tailored to healthcare and frontline workers. Our first presenter will present findings from an evidence-based group resiliency program, Stress Management and Resiliency Training Program (SMART-3RP), adapted for frontline clinicians in a large-scale hospital system during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our second presenter will present data from the initial implementation of a novel “daily coping toolkit” designed to bolster positive mood among medical personnel and first responders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our third speaker will present findings from the implementation of an online course, Resilience Training for HealthCare Workers, administered to healthcare workers in a multi-hospital network during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our last speaker will share data from a multi-site trial in Texas and Puerto Rico evaluating the Resilience and Coping for HealthCare Providers Workshop among healthcare workers. Our discussant, an expert in the transdiagnostic implementation of cognitive-behavioral therapies, will synthesize the findings across these trials to discuss strategies for the widespread dissemination and implementation of resilience and coping interventions across hospital and community health centers. Overall, this symposium highlights the importance of taking care of our healthcare and frontline workers via scalable, targeted, and culturally-sensitive cognitive-behavioral interventions.
Presenter: Louisa G. Sylvia, Ph.D. – Massachusetts General Hospital
Co-author: Dustin J. Rabideau, Ph.D. – Biostatistics, Massachusetts General Hospital
Co-author: Joanna Streck, PhD – Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital
Co-author: Gregory Fricchione, MD – Massachusetts General Hospital
Co-author: Elyse Park, PhD, MPH – Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital
Presenter: David J. Disabato, Ph.D. – Kent State University
Co-author: Karin Coifman, PhD – Kent State University
Presenter: Nicole R. DeTore, Ph.D. – Massachusetts General Hospital
Co-author: Louisa G. Sylvia, Ph.D. – Massachusetts General Hospital
Co-author: Elyse Park, PhD, MPH – Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital
Co-author: Anne S. Burke, Ph.D. – Massachusetts General Hospital
Co-author: Felipe Jain, M.D. – Harvard Medical School / Massachusetts General Hospital
Co-author: Julie Levison, MD, MPhil – Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital
Co-author: Daphne Holt, MD, PhD – Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts General Hospital
Presenter: Tara Powell, M.P.H., Ph.D., MSW – University of Illinois Urbana Champaign
Co-author: Paula Yuma, PhD, MPH – Colorado State University
Co-author: Jen Scott, PhD, MSW – Louisiana State University