Addressing Pediatric Mental Health During COVID-19 and Other Disasters: A National Tabletop Exercise.

• 2021

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• Saloni Gupta; Merritt Schreiber; Tona McGuire; Christopher Newton
PMID: 33867004DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/dmp.2021.122

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About

This article describes a national exercise to help professionals understand and use PsySTART, a system for identifying mental health risks in children after disasters like COVID-19. The exercise involved 115 participants who practiced using PsySTART with different scenarios. Most participants felt more confident in using the tool afterward. It helps identify at-risk children without direct interviews and can show mental health impacts on larger groups, helping allocate resources better during crises. The exercise aimed to improve disaster response for children's mental health by training professionals across various fields through virtual sessions.

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Tags

Focus Areas: Infectious Disease; Mental Health

Audiences: Behavioral Health Professionals; Nurses; Physicians

Emergency Management Stages: Response; Preparedness (Prevention / Protection)

Collection: Disaster Research Literature Review

Keywords: Disaster Planning; Disasters; Mental Health; Pediatrics; Triage; Pandemics; COVID-19; Psychological First Aid

Institutions: University of California at Irvine; University of California, Los Angeles; Harbor-UCLA Medical Center; Washington State Department of Health; UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital

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