Symposia
Disaster Mental Health
Debra Kaysen, ABPP, Ph.D.
Professor
Stanford University
Palo Alto, California
Eric Kuhn, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist
VA Palo Alto Health Care System/Stanford
Menlo Park, CA
Janice Kuo, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Palo Alto University
Palo Alto, CA
Szu-Chi Huang, PhD
Associate Professor of Marketing
Stanford Graduate School of Business
Palo Alto, California
Shannon Wiltsey Stirman, Ph.D.
Associate Professor/Acting Deputy Director
Stanford University
Menlo Park, California
The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in its global scope and impact on the healthcare workforce. An estimated 67% of healthcare workers have reported increased burnout, stress, anxiety, depression, PTSD, and insomnia and decreased well-being. Groups most at risk for these negative impacts include women, nursing staff, and those working directly with COVID patients. The extent of those affected will far outstrip current mental health capacity necessitating more scalable mental health solutions. At the same time, healthcare workers can be challenging to engage in care due to stigma about mental health symptoms, a culture of service, and professional time demands. Pause a Moment (PAM) is an evidence-informed web-application for healthcare workers that provides adaptive tools for common responses to the pandemic. PAM uses end users’ report of symptoms to suggest specific tools tailored to their concerns. All visitors have full use of the site, but registered users can save content and complete symptom inventories.
PAM launched in February 2022 across the Stanford Medical Center system. Its content is roughly divided into two sections, brief 3–5-minute interventions mostly drawing from mindfulness exercises and 5-15-minute interventions drawing mostly from CBT (e.g., cognitive restructuring, problem solving). Dissemination efforts included collaborating with Stanford Wellness and Human Resources, presenting at team meetings, promotion in Stanford newsletters and publications, using social media, and creating a marketing video. Currently, 5,361 individuals have visited PAM and 390 have registered. Of registered users, the most common professions were administrative support (n = 108), nurses (n = 69), physicians (n = 48), and other (n = 101).
The most common mood reported by all users was anxious (n = 610), followed by stressed (n = 426), and content (n = 361). Average depression and anxiety scores for registered users who completed the PHQ-9 or GAD-7 were in the moderate range (PHQ-9 = 14.3, GAD-7 = 11.9) whereas PTSD symptoms were in the subclinical range (PCL-8 = 18.88). Overall, users accessed the brief interventions more frequently and rated them higher than the longer tools. Future analyses will examine changes in symptoms and distress over time.
The pandemic has necessitated that healthcare systems find new ways of addressing mental health in their workforce. Low-cost, scalable applications like PAM may be one such method, especially given the challenges healthcare workers face in seeking care.