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

Saloni Gupta1, Merritt Schreiber2, Tona McGuire3

  • 1David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness
|April 19, 2021
PubMed

Insights

This exercise trained professionals in Psychological Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment (PsySTART) for pediatric mental health risk during COVID-19. Participants gained confidence in using PsySTART for early intervention and population-level risk assessment in disasters.

Area of Science:

  • Emergency Medicine
  • Public Health
  • Mental Health Services

Background:

  • The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the urgent need for effective pediatric mental health risk identification.
  • The Western Regional Alliance for Pediatric Emergency Management developed a training exercise to address this need.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To familiarize mental health and non-mental health professionals with the Psychological Simple Triage and Rapid Treatment (PsySTART) system.
  • To evaluate the system's utility in assessing mental health impacts following public health emergencies like COVID-19.

Main Methods:

  • An integrated, interdisciplinary national tabletop exercise was conducted.
  • 115 participants triaged 156 practice cases using the PsySTART system.
  • Participants interpreted triage results at individual and aggregate levels.

Main Results:

  • A user-defined operating picture was created, visualizing aggregate mental health risk data.
  • Real-time, cross-regional situational awareness was achieved.
  • A significant majority of participants reported increased confidence in using PsySTART.

Conclusions:

  • Participants are better prepared for mental health triage and early intervention during public health crises.
  • The exercise improved understanding of population-level mental health risk assessment.
  • PsySTART is a valuable tool for managing mental health impacts in disaster scenarios.
Abstract

Keywords:
COVID-19PsySTARTdisaster responsemental health triagetabletop exercise

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