Multiple Crises Give Rise to Digital Delivery of Mental Health Services

Across the Bay Area and Northern California, more than 480 structures, including homes, have been lost due to massive wildfires. Complex wildfires continue to spread. While California wildfires can be expected and intensified during dry conditions, this fire season coupled with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest across the country, is presenting unique mental health challenges for Californians.

When one disaster strikes, the emotional toll can be heavy. When crises collide like this, the risk of increased distress and mental health problems such as depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can drastically increase.

Due to COVID-19, the positive, meaningful coping mechanisms people typically turn to, such as social support and positive activities with family and friends, has been labeled risky. This alone has caused increased mental health concerns. Now, because people are distancing, they might not seek help for fear of putting themselves or their family at risk.

This duality presents a unique challenge: people are urged to stay home due to the pandemic but at the same time may need timely help from trained mental health professionals.

Palo Alto University is addressing this dire need through advances in the digital delivery of mental health crisis support. We are a leader in developing, evaluating and implementing technology in the fields of psychology and counseling.

Located in the greater Silicon Valley, graduates of Palo Alto University’s doctoral program in psychology and master’s in counseling programs – as well as current doctoral and master’s students in training – can empathize with struggling community members and facilitate focused, research-based care and resources—skills that will only increase in demand as the risk of droughts, heatwaves, wildfires, hurricanes, and pandemics rise in the U.S.

Every person has a different experience or trauma from each of these disasters, which requires a personalized approach to telehealth care.

Patients Develop Diverse Needs During Disasters

Even before the first confirmed U.S. case of COVID-19 in January, Californians have been affected by the pandemic, with the CDC screening passengers arriving from Wuhan, China, to San Francisco International and Los Angeles International airports.

Mentally taxed from stay at home orders, many communities in late May were faced with social unrest and protesting following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed by police officers. (Discover what books Palo Alto University faculty members recommend related to current events.)

People have a limited capacity to cope. In any disaster, the range of reactions varies from fear and worry to grief, panic, depression or shock. In the case of multiple stressful situations, the risk of negative reactions can be amplified.

According to a U.N. policy brief about COVID-19 and mental health, people are experiencing more severe mental health issues, and noted that following the 2008 economic crisis, more “deaths of despair” were reported.

During or after a crisis, people could react to real or perceived risk of losing their lives. These individuals may experience signature reactions associated with PTSD, such as intrusive thoughts or nightmares that linger long after the threat has passed.

Others may experience grief in losing a loved one or, in the case of the wildfires, their home and possessions. Those facing insecurity regarding their finances or job may develop low mood, depression or anxiety amid their worries about the future.

All these feelings and responses are valid and lifechanging. And all should be addressed.

However, during COVID and fire evacuations, the typical two-pronged crisis response has become much more difficult to provide:

• Psychological first aid, which consists of health professionals making informal contact with affected people where they are gathering to provide information about resources and ask how they are doing.
• Crisis counseling programs, where affected people have the opportunities for a few in-person counseling sessions at no cost to them, supported by money from governments or organizations.

As a result, PAU providers have implemented new ways to reach affected people through telehealth and community action.
 

Support Through Telehealth and Community

Previously, there was a national reluctance of organizations to perform mental health counseling over the phone or video. These services were reserved for patients in rural areas where mental health care access is difficult to come by.

But in a time of social distancing—and surprise after unpleasant 2020 surprise—telehealth has fast become recognized as the safest option to provide mental health support for a range of patient needs.

For example, to assist with mental health support related to the wildfires the past few years, a colleague and I created a disaster recover website, My Disaster Recovery. My Disaster Recovery was adapted for the Sonoma County wildfires to be MySonomaStrong, a technology-based self-help service. It’s designed to help survivors who have experienced a fire deal with post-disaster stress and cope more effectively with the effects of the disaster.

Palo Alto University experts are also sharing resources on a variety of mental health and wellness topics specific to the pandemic. 

Telehealth opens the door for PAU providers and trained volunteers to help their community by providing virtual support. Through training and workshops, community members can learn how to support their network of friends, acquaintances, neighbors, family members and coworkers.

Palo Alto University offers various resources to help your community. The Institute for International Internet Interventions for Health (i4Health) offers resources and information at no charge on a variety of topics, including mental health. In Foundations in Digital Therapy, learn about available tools and technology.
 

Real-World Crisis Experience at PAU

At Palo Alto University, students have a variety of resources and opportunities to put practice to work. They can work at clinics and centers like the Center for m²Health, the Early Intervention Clinic (for recent trauma survivors), or community partnerships.

Students can gain real-world research and clinical experience in evidence-based mental health care and prevention, grief and bereavement support, and other opportunities.

Palo Alto University faculty members are national experts in their fields, including mental health and PTSD. Here, they head labs and training clinics where students can work side-by-side with the faculty.

Following graduation, alumni have the skills for a variety of great experiences, including user experience, research, working in the community, trauma specialties and more. 

The need for providing mental health support via technology or to one’s own community has never been greater. At Palo Alto University, we provide the next generation—and today's community members—with the tools and training to help guide our community through intense crisis situations.