The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a literal revolution in mental health care delivery, shifting the vast majority of psychological services to telepsychology. This study conducted a national survey of licensed psychologists and documented this seismic shift, finding that although 7.07% of psychologists' clinical work was performed via telepsychology before the COVID-19 pandemic, this increased 12-fold to 85.53% during the pandemic. Psychologists were optimistic that over one-third of their clinical work would still occur via telepsychology after the pandemic, suggesting the high likelihood of lasting changes in U.S. mental health care delivery.
Informal caregivers are critical in the care of individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD) and spend substantial time providing care, which may be associated with negative caregiver outcomes such as burden and mental health issues. Although research in the United States and Europe has generally supported these relations, there is very limited research on PD caregiving in Latin America. The current study examined the following connections in a sample of PD caregivers from the United States (N = 105) and Mexico (N = 148): (a) PD-related impairments (motor and nonmotor symptoms) and caregiver burden, (b) caregiver burden and caregiver mental health, and (c) PD-related impairments and mental health through caregiver burden. Study results uncovered significant relations among PD-related impairments, caregiver burden, and caregiver mental health. Further, caregiver burden fully mediated the relation between PD-related impairments and caregiver mental health at both study sites. Findings highlight a number of important intervention targets for caregivers and families, including caregiver burden and mental health.
Despite older adults’ extremely high vulnerability to COVID-19 complications and death, few studies have examined how personal characteristics and the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted the mental health of older adults at the global level. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among demographics, COVID-19 life impacts, and depression and anxiety in adults aged 60 and older from 33 countries. A sample of 823 older adults aged 60–94 and residing in 33 countries completed a 10-minute online survey following recruitment from mailing lists and social media. Being separated from and having conflicts with loved ones predicted both anxiety and depression, as did residing in a country with higher income. Getting medical treatment for severe symptoms of COVID-19 and having decreased work responsibilities predicted depression, but adjustment to working from home and younger age predicted both depression and anxiety. Participants from Europe and Central Asia reported higher depression than those from all other regions and higher anxiety than those from Latin America and the Caribbean. The COVID-19 pandemic has had serious deleterious effects on the mental health of older adults worldwide. The current findings have direct implications for mental health services that may be delivered to older adults to help facilitate healthy psychological adjustment.
The Richmond Health and Wellness Program (RHWP) is an innovative interprofessional care coordination program that seeks to support the health and wellness of independent-living older adults and educate future practitioners. Since 2012, RHWP has provided community-based interprofessional training to students at Virginia Commonwealth University. The sudden suspension of clinical and communitybased training due to the COVID-19 pandemic created the need to transform the traditional ways students received clinical education and support the vulnerable communities served by RHWP. This paper describes RHWP's rapid transition to a hybrid telephone-based program with a virtual learning component for students which allowed RHWP to continue serving its participants and provide interprofessional training experiences. Since the transition, RHWP has served 111 participants through over 400 telephonic visits, and 12 nurse practitioner and pharmacy students completed clinical hours to fulfill graduation requirements. To meet the needs of learners, interprofessional education models can be adapted to changing circumstances posed by COVID-19.
Only scant literature has focused on social support in Parkinson’s disease (PD) caregivers, and no studies to date have examined resilience in this population, despite both variables having been shown to be important in other caregiving populations. As a result, the purpose of the current study was to construct and validate a theoretical structural equation model whereby social support is associated with higher levels of resilience in PD caregivers and increased resilience is related to decreased mental health symptoms. Two hundred fifty three PD caregivers from two clinics in the United States and Mexico completed self-report measures of these constructs. Results suggested that the hypothesized pattern was robustly supported with the structural equation model showing generally good fit indices. Higher levels of social support were associated with increased resilience, which in turn was associated with reduced mental health symptoms. Resilience partially mediated social support’s effect on mitigating mental health symptoms. The model explained 11% of the variance in resilience and 35% in mental health symptoms. These findings have implications for future research on the development and tailoring of interventions to improve social support, resilience, and mental health in PD caregivers.
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