Integrating Behavioral Health Into Monitoring and Surveillance During Public Health Emergencies: Challenges and...

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Behavioral Health Surveillance
• Epidemiology

Background:

• Existing guidance for public health agencies on utilizing data for behavioral health (BH) surveillance during public health emergencies (PHEs) is limited.
• Effective monitoring of BH during PHEs is crucial for understanding population-level impacts and informing public health responses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify existing data sources, indicators, and analytic methods applicable to BH surveillance within the context of PHEs.
• To examine the utility of selected data sources for BH surveillance during PHEs through exploratory analyses and agency interviews.

Main Methods:

• Conducted a comprehensive literature review and environmental scan to identify relevant data sources and methodologies.
• Performed exploratory analyses on selected data sources.
• Interviewed public health agencies to assess data source utility for BH surveillance in PHEs.

Main Results:

• No dedicated surveillance systems for BH during PHEs were identified.
• Several non-dedicated data sources can be leveraged for substate-level BH surveillance during PHEs, though some provide lagging indicators.
• Most available data sources lack consistent sociodemographic information, hindering the analysis of inequitable impacts on subpopulations.

Conclusions:

• Public health agencies can enhance BH surveillance during PHEs by utilizing existing, geographically granular data.
• Building partnerships is essential to effectively use timely data for informed public health actions.
• There are opportunities to strengthen BH surveillance infrastructure and response capabilities through strategic data utilization.