Promoting resilience in persons with serious mental health conditions during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Abstract

This article highlights the profound and far-reaching impact of the Coronavirus disease 2019 health crisis on persons with serious mental health conditions. To understand and mitigate against the negative effects of the crisis on this population, we offer a resilience intervention framework that attends to three key resilience processes, namely control, coherence, and connectedness (3Cs). We then detail interventions and associated evidence-informed intervention strategies at the individual, interpersonal, and systemic levels that behavioral health professionals can employ to bolster each of the 3Cs for persons with serious mental health conditions. These intervention strategies, which must be implemented in a flexible manner, are designed to enhance the biopsychosocial functioning of persons with serious mental health conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond and strengthen their interpersonal and systemic environments. We conclude with recommendations for future directions. Impact StatementResilience is a powerful predictor of positive mental health in the context of stress, such as a pandemic. This article offers an array of individual, interpersonal, and systemic interventions to bolster the resilience of persons with serious mental health conditions and support their ongoing recovery. These interventions can help these individuals have more control over their lives, a greater sense of meaning in accord with their values, and feel more connected to others and their community.

Exploring Trauma and Resilience among NYS COVID-19 Pandemic Survivors

“…These findings are consistent with research conducted by Friis-Healy et al [ 11 ], which indicated that in the context of this public health crisis, resilience often accompanies adaptive emotional responses. To provide clinicians with more tools to bolster resilience in their client populations, Friis-Healy et al provided a resilience-based intervention framework grounded in the “3Cs” approach to understanding the key tenets of resilience in coping with traumatic stress: control, coherence, and connectedness [ 11 ]. We adopt this framework to help explain the resilient nature of the NYS COVID-19 Emotional Support Helpline and the caller–agent interaction that arose from this community-based intervention.…”

“…Perhaps most traumatic for many survivors was the loss of closure through both the inability to say goodbye to dying family members and friends and the powerlessness to hold memorial services for those loved ones [ 10 ]. Individuals most at risk for developing PTSD symptoms may be those who had already experienced mental health concerns before the COVID-19 global pandemic and those who became seriously ill themselves or lost others to the virus [ 10 , 11 ].…”

“…A global pandemic demands interventions that can mitigate the disproportionate harm placed on those populations, yet appropriate community-based mental health services are limited [ 11 ]. In situations such as these, telephone interventions may be best equipped to stand in the breach [ 3 , 18 ].…”

“…We adopt this framework to help explain the resilient nature of the NYS COVID-19 Emotional Support Helpline and the caller–agent interaction that arose from this community-based intervention. Friis-Healy et al defined control as the self-awareness of having the personal assets necessary to respond appropriately in a crisis [ 11 ]. NYS citizens and those from around the U.S. who called this helpline were aware that they had a helpline that they could call to gain support, demonstrating adaptive help-seeking (control).…”

Introduction to the special issue: Psychological resilience in public service settings.

“…In one article, Tavel et al (2022) surveyed psychotherapists across three European countries on their level of resilience during the pandemic and found that those with higher levels of dispositional resilience reported lower levels of stress, highlighting the importance of resilience in stress management during this unique time in our history. In another article, Friis–Healy et al (2022) offer a resilience framework from which new approaches and interventions can be developed to help adults with serious mental illness build resilience during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Two other articles in this special section examined the mental health of first responders who have been overworked and overburdened by the pandemic.…”