Abstract
In the wake of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, rapid identification of pediatric mental health risk is extremely important. The Western Regional Alliance for Pediatric Emergency Management held an integrated, interdisciplinary national tabletop exercise to familiarize mental health and non-mental health professionals with Psychological Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment (PsySTART), an evidence-based triage and incident management system used to evaluate new mental health risk impacts following exposure to traumatic events, such as coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Participants Participants were exposed to 3 practice cases that reflected a combination of "all hazards" scenarios and were asked to triage each case using PsySTART. Participants were asked to interpret results at both an individual site and aggregate county and/or state level. The exercise had a total of 115 participants with a total of 156 discrete triage encounters. A user-defined operating picture was created with graphs of aggregate mental health risk data, generating cross-regional, real-time situational awareness. After the exercise, a vast majority of the participants reported confidence in their ability to use PsySTART in their practices. Participants are now better equipped with tools to perform mental health triage for early intervention during COVID-19 and other disasters and understand risk on a population level.
Highlights
The importance of improved disaster planning for children in various disasters, including natural events such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and public health events, for example, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, as well as man-made events such as chemical, biological radiological or nuclear exposure, terrorism, and motor vehicle accidents is well known.[1]
A snowball sampling scheme was used to recruit participants across the United States, starting with participants from 2 groups funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services: Western Regional Alliance for Pediatric Emergency Management (WRAP-EM) and the Eastern Great Lakes Pediatric Consortium for Disaster Response
According to post-exercise survey responses, this Tabletop exercises (TTX), the first to train on PsySTART helped the majority of participants establish confidence in using PsySTART moving forward and helped them understand the role of PsySTART in improving integrated disaster care for children
Summary
The importance of improved disaster planning for children in various disasters, including natural events such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and public health events, for example, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, as well as man-made events such as chemical, biological radiological or nuclear exposure, terrorism, and motor vehicle accidents is well known.[1] National data show that 1 in 7 children in the United States has experienced a disaster in her or his lifetime.[2] Because children have underdeveloped coping skills compared with adults, they may be susceptible to more severe psychological impacts of disasters.[3] These effects fall on a continuum, ranging from short-term distress on a trajectory toward a resiliency pathway, to new-incidence disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).[4] Children require specialized care to address these psychological stressors to prevent new-incidence disorders and worsening of pre-existing disorders, and prevent the hindrance of growth, development, and school performance that can result from disaster-induced traumatic stress.[3] specialized pediatric mental health care is a relatively scarce commodity that is not available in large numbers or in every community. Significant progress has been made in understanding the continuum of impact since the Oklahoma City bombings, terrorism attacks of September 11, 2001, and Hurricane Katrina. Pediatric mental health disaster planning remains incomplete, and the significant differences in disaster planning between pediatric and adult populations generally are not recognized.[3,5]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
