The response of the mental health network of the Salamanca area to the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of the telemedicine.

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Highlights

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The COVID-19 pandemic has spread causing a great impact on healthcare services.
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The response of the Mental Health Network of the Salamanca area to the infection of the COVID-19. The implementation plan of our Mental Health Network to this crisis in the Salamanca area (Spain) and the reorganization of its resources within the first 8 weeks after the state of alarm was described.
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This response includes the reorganization of the human resources, the units, and the implementation of massive tele-medicine programs, with more than 9000 contact.
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Two specific programs were implementing the first one for preventing and treating mental disorders for patient and relatives and health and the second for homeless people.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic reached world-wide causing a great impact on healthcare services. The aim of this work is to describe the response of the Mental Health Network of the Salamanca´ Area (Spain) to this crisis and the reorganization of its resources within the first 8 weeks after the state of alarm was declared. The Psychiatry Service applied a contingency plan which included the reorganization of the human resources, the closure of some of the units and the implementation of telemedicine programs along with two specific programs, namely a mental health assistance program in the context of the infection by coronavirus, and another program for homeless people. 9.038 phone interviews were carried out in the outpatients and community mental health programs. The activity in subacute and acute wards, as well as that of the day hospital programs was decreased to 50%.

Based on that this real-world response provided we concluded that the usage of telemedicine is promising in patients with any kind of disorder. Its implementation in daily practice will be considered in the future. Research must continue on COVID-19′s impact on patients with mental disorders and Psychiatry's necessary adaptations and new approaches to them.

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Most cited references 46

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Online mental health services in China during the COVID-19 outbreak

Shuai Liu, Lulu Yang, Chenxi Zhang … (2020)

At the start of 2020, the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), originating from Wuhan in Hubei province, started to spread throughout China. As a result of the rapidly increasing numbers of confirmed cases and deaths, both medical staff and the public have been experiencing psychological problems, including anxiety, depression, and stress.1, 2 Since January, 2020, the National Health Commission of China have published several guideline documents, starting with the notification of principles for emergency psychological crisis intervention for the COVID-19 epidemic on January 26, then the notice on establishing psychological assistance hotlines for the epidemic on February 2, and most recently, guidelines for psychological assistance hotlines during the COVID-19 epidemic on February 7. 3 During the severe acute respiratory syndrome epidemic in 2003, internet services and smartphones were not widely available. Therefore, few online mental health services were provided for those in need. 4 The popularisation of internet services and smartphones, and the emergence of fifth generation (5G) mobile networks, have enabled mental health professionals and health authorities to provide online mental health services during the COVID-19 outbreak. Fast transmission of the virus between people hinders traditional face-to-face psychological interventions. By contrast, provision of online mental health services is safe. To date, several types of online mental health services have been implemented widely for those in need during the outbreak in China. Firstly, as of Feb 8, 2020, 72 online mental health surveys associated with the COVID-19 outbreak could be searched for via the WeChat-based survey programme Questionnaire Star, which target different populations, including medical staff (23 of the surveys), patients with COVID-19 (one survey), students (18 surveys), the general population (nine surveys), and mixed populations (21 surveys); in Hubei province (five surveys), other provinces (15 surveys), all provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions (36 surveys), and unspecified areas of China (16 surveys). One such multicentre survey involving 1563 medical staff, with our centre at Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University (Guangzhou, China) as one of the study sites, found the prevalence of depression (defined as a total score of ≥5 in the Patient Health Questionnaire-9) to be 50·7%, of anxiety (defined as a total score of ≥5 in the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7) to be 44·7%, of insomnia to be 36·1% (defined as a total score of ≥8 in the Insomnia Severity Index), and of stress-related symptoms (defined as a total score of ≥9 in the Impact of Events Scale-Revised) to be 73·4%. These findings are important in enabling health authorities to allocate health resources and develop appropriate treatments for medical staff who have mental health problems. Secondly, online mental health education with communication programmes, such as WeChat, Weibo, and TikTok, has been widely used during the outbreak for medical staff and the public. In addition, several books on COVID-19 prevention, control, and mental health education have been swiftly published and free electronic copies have been provided for the public. As of February 8, 29 books associated with COVID-19 have been published, 11 (37·9%) of which are on mental health, including the “Guidelines for public psychological self-help and counselling of 2019-nCoV pneumonia”, published by the Chinese Association for Mental Health. Finally, online psychological counselling services (eg, WeChat-based resources) have been widely established by mental health professionals in medical institutions, universities, and academic societies throughout all 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in mainland China, which provide free 24-h services on all days of the week. Online psychological self-help intervention systems, including online cognitive behavioural therapy for depression, anxiety, and insomnia (eg, on WeChat), have also been developed. In addition, several artificial intelligence (AI) programmes have been put in use as interventions for psychological crises during the epidemic. For example, individuals at risk of suicide can be recognised by the AI programme Tree Holes Rescue, 5 by monitoring and analysing messages posted on Weibo, and alerting designated volunteers to act accordingly. In general, online mental health services being used for the COVID-19 epidemic are facilitating the development of Chinese public emergency interventions, and eventually could improve the quality and effectiveness of emergency interventions.

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Epidemiology, causes, clinical manifestation and diagnosis, prevention and control of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during the early outbreak period: a scoping review

Sasmita Adhikari, Sha Meng, Yu-Ju Wu … (2020)

Background The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has been identified as the cause of an outbreak of respiratory illness in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China beginning in December 2019. As of 31 January 2020, this epidemic had spread to 19 countries with 11 791 confirmed cases, including 213 deaths. The World Health Organization has declared it a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Methods A scoping review was conducted following the methodological framework suggested by Arksey and O’Malley. In this scoping review, 65 research articles published before 31 January 2020 were analyzed and discussed to better understand the epidemiology, causes, clinical diagnosis, prevention and control of this virus. The research domains, dates of publication, journal language, authors’ affiliations, and methodological characteristics were included in the analysis. All the findings and statements in this review regarding the outbreak are based on published information as listed in the references. Results Most of the publications were written using the English language (89.2%). The largest proportion of published articles were related to causes (38.5%) and a majority (67.7%) were published by Chinese scholars. Research articles initially focused on causes, but over time there was an increase of the articles related to prevention and control. Studies thus far have shown that the virus’ origination is in connection to a seafood market in Wuhan, but specific animal associations have not been confirmed. Reported symptoms include fever, cough, fatigue, pneumonia, headache, diarrhea, hemoptysis, and dyspnea. Preventive measures such as masks, hand hygiene practices, avoidance of public contact, case detection, contact tracing, and quarantines have been discussed as ways to reduce transmission. To date, no specific antiviral treatment has proven effective; hence, infected people primarily rely on symptomatic treatment and supportive care. Conclusions There has been a rapid surge in research in response to the outbreak of COVID-19. During this early period, published research primarily explored the epidemiology, causes, clinical manifestation and diagnosis, as well as prevention and control of the novel coronavirus. Although these studies are relevant to control the current public emergency, more high-quality research is needed to provide valid and reliable ways to manage this kind of public health emergency in both the short- and long-term.

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Patients with mental health disorders in the COVID-19 epidemic

Hao Yao, Jian-Hua Chen, Yi-Feng Xu (2020)

More than 60 000 infections have been confirmed worldwide in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, with most of these cases in China. Global attention has largely been focused on the infected patients and the frontline responders, with some marginalised populations in society having been overlooked. Here, we write to express our concerns with regards to the effect of the epidemic on people with mental health disorders. Ignorance of the differential impact of the epidemic on these patients will not only hinder any aims to prevent further spread of COVID-19, but will also augment already existing health inequalities. In China, 173 million people are living with mental health disorders, 1 and neglect and stigma regarding these conditions still prevail in society. 2 When epidemics arise, people with mental health disorders are generally more susceptible to infections for several reasons. First, mental health disorders can increase the risk of infections, including pneumonia. 3 One report released on Feb 9, 2020, discussing a cluster of 50 cases of COVID-19 among inpatients in one psychiatric hospital in Wuhan, China, has raised concerns over the role of mental disorders in coronavirus transmission. 4 Possible explanations include cognitive impairment, little awareness of risk, and diminished efforts regarding personal protection in patients, as well as confined conditions in psychiatric wards. Second, once infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2—which results in COVID-19—people with mental disorders can be exposed to more barriers in accessing timely health services, because of discrimination associated with mental ill-health in health-care settings. Additionally, mental health disorder comorbidities to COVID-19 will make the treatment more challenging and potentially less effective. 5 Third, the COVID-19 epidemic has caused a parallel epidemic of fear, anxiety, and depression. People with mental health conditions could be more substantially influenced by the emotional responses brought on by the COVID-19 epidemic, resulting in relapses or worsening of an already existing mental health condition because of high susceptibility to stress compared with the general population. Finally, many people with mental health disorders attend regular outpatient visits for evaluations and prescriptions. However, nationwide regulations on travel and quarantine have resulted in these regular visits becoming more difficult and impractical to attend. Few voices of this large but vulnerable population of people with mental health disorders have been heard during this epidemic. Epidemics never affect all populations equally and inequalities can always drive the spread of infections. As mental health and public health professionals, we call for adequate and necessary attention to people with mental health disorders in the COVID-19 epidemic.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Carlos Roncero

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Psychiatry Res

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Psychiatry Res

Title: Psychiatry Research

Publisher: Elsevier B.V.

ISSN (Print): 0165-1781

ISSN (Electronic): 1872-7123

Publication date PMC-release: 2 July 2020

Publication date (Print): September 2020

Publication date (Electronic): 2 July 2020

Volume: 291

Page: 113252

Affiliations

[a ]Psychiatry Service, University of Salamanca Healthcare Complex (USHC), Salamanca, Spain

[b ]Institute of Biomedicine of Salamanca (IBSAL), University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

[c ]School of Medicine, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

[d ]School of Nursing and Physiotherapy, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

Author notes

[* ]Corresponding author. croncero@ 123456saludcastillayleon.es

Article

Publisher ID: S0165-1781(20)31600-0 Publisher ID: 113252

DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.113252

PMC ID: 7329660

PubMed ID: 32623263

SO-VID: 816fecb3-a46f-4023-9913-e54ca0735a19

License:

Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

History

Date received : 25 May 2020

Date revision received : 21 June 2020

Date accepted : 21 June 2020

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The response of the mental health network of the Salamanca area to the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of the telemedicine.

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Novel Coronavirus Disease COVID-19

Most cited references 46

Online mental health services in China during the COVID-19 outbreak

Epidemiology, causes, clinical manifestation and diagnosis, prevention and control of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) during the early outbreak period: a scoping review

Patients with mental health disorders in the COVID-19 epidemic

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Cited by 33

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