Abstract
Even with the expanding burden of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, our approach to mental health care remains largely reactive rather than preventive. This trend is problematic because the majority of outpatient visits to primary care providers across the country is related to unmet mental health needs. Positive psychology has the potential to address these issues within mental health care and provide primary care providers with strategies to serve their patients more effectively. Positive psychology has many frameworks like hope, which can be measured using simple questionnaires in the waiting room. Moreover, there is a growing body of neurobiological evidence that lends credence to positive psychology concepts in the context of differential neuronal activation patterns. Many positive psychological instruments not only have high construct validity but also have connections to observable neurobiological differences tied to differences in psychosocial functioning. Despite the current evidence, we still need robust research that explores if such psychometric measurements and related interventions lead to clinically significant and favorable health outcomes in patients outside of controlled environments.
Highlights
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in devastating worldwide consequences for health networks and patients
Mental health care still faces stigmatization from much of the public, ranging from hesitancy to distrust (Parcesepe and Cabassa, 2012). This stigma largely stems from the fact that many people do not see mental illnesses as legitimate as somatic dysfunctions (Parcesepe and Cabassa, 2012). These perceptions of mental health create a challenge for both patients and Preventive Mental Health Care primary care providers (PCPs) given that approximately 70% of outpatient visits relate to unmet mental health needs (Hunter et al, 2017)
PCPs need tools that are readily implementable in busy practices and that lead to clinically appreciable changes in well-being
Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in devastating worldwide consequences for health networks and patients. By demonstrating the specific clinical applications and limitations of measuring psychological traits like hope and appropriately implementing related PPIs, psychometric scales grounded in positive psychological theories could gain the same confidence as hemoglobin A1c or blood pressure screenings among patients and mental health care providers. These psychometric tools could be employed in the same manner as a review-of-systems checklist while patients are in a waiting room to identify opportunities to help them. By implementing such a system, researchers could study the impacts of positive psychology interventions and their clinical significance
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