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Phases of psychological response in COVID-19: A preliminary heuristic
George S Everly1, Albert W Wu2, James B Potash3
1Adjunct Professor, Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medi-cine, Baltimore, Maryland.
Objective:
To explore the putative phases of the psychological response to disaster: preimpact, impact, heroic, honeymoon, disillusionment, and recovery, and make recommendations for corresponding interventions.
Conclusions:
Disasters such as the COVID-19 pandemic are often characterized by chaos and uncertainty. As a result, public health disaster planning and response represent formidable challenges. Although disasters can result from a wide array of hazards, regardless of the agent at work, they may follow a rather predictable trajectory of psychological phases. A heuristic of those phases can provide an opportunity for a more organized disaster mental health response and more efficient utilization of scarce resources.
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