Mobile mental health interventions following war and disaster

Abstract

Mobile technologies offer potentially critical ways of delivering mental health support to those experiencing war, ethnic conflict, and human-caused and natural disasters. Research on Internet interventions suggests that effective mobile mental health technologies can be developed, and there are early indications that they will be acceptable to war and disaster survivors, and prove capable of greatly increasing the reach of mental health services. Promising mhealth interventions include video teleconferencing, text messaging, and smartphone-based applications. In addition, a variety of social media platforms has been used during and immediately after disasters to increase agility in responding, and strengthen community and individual resilience. Globally, PTSD Coach has been downloaded over 243,000 times in 96 countries, and together with large-scale use of social media for communication during disasters, suggests the potential for reach of app technology. In addition to enabling improved self-management of post-trauma problems, mobile phone interventions can also enhance delivery of face-to-face care by mental health providers and increase the effectiveness of peer helpers and mutual aid organizations. More research is needed to establish the efficacy of mhealth interventions for those affected by war and disaster. Research should also focus on the identification of active elements and core processes of change, determination of effective ways of increasing adoption and engagement, and explore ways of combining the various capabilities of mobile technologies to maximize their impact.

Effects of stress on the development and progression of cardiovascular disease

“…The platforms include social media, video teleconferencing, text messaging, and smartphone-based applications (e.g., PTSD Coach has been downloaded over 243,000 times in 96 countries). 155 To date, systematic research on the potential benefits in terms of cardiovascular prevention is not available.…”

Impact of coronavirus outbreak on psychological health

“…To cope with such outbreaks and epidemics, the health care authorities should have affective plans, which must consider psychological health [3,10,12]. Unlike the infected individuals, the responses of uninfected individuals are expected to be mild, however, these reactions become worse by rumors spread by media and social networks [13][14][15]. In the outbreak caused by 2019-nCoV in Wuhan, China, the reactions of the people could be quite severe as compared to the outbreaks of SARS and MERS [3,11] (and references S1-S3 in the Online Supplementary Document; other supplementary references are indicated by letter S in brackets).…”

Strengthening mental health care systems for Syrian refugees in Europe and the Middle East: integrating scalable psychological interventions in eight countries

“…However, e-mental health interventions are now increasingly developed as smartphone e-mental health apps in order to increase their reach in populations affected by adversity (Ruzek, Kuhn, Jaworski, Owen, & Ramsey, 2016). These apps are especially promising for scaling-up in Syrian refugees since the majority of Syrians have access to mobile phones, and smartphones have become the main access point to the internet.…”