None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
The global impact of COVID-19 has been profound, and the public health threat it represents is the most serious seen in recent pandemic history. Thus, concerns about COVID-19 are pervasive and have several serious adverse impacts on the mental health of health workers and the general community. There is an urgent demand for programs that can address the stress experienced by people during the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation does not require therapy because these personnel do not necessarily suffer from a mental disorder. Instead, there are huge numbers of people who are facing unprecedented levels of stress and require strategies to manage this stress. A suitable and evidence-based program that helps to cope with stress in times of crisis is the Coping with COVID (CWC). As a low-intensity intervention for adults affected by the pandemic, this program teaches people well-documented strategies to manage stress. This project aims to conduct a rapid trial of a brief psychological intervention, termed CWC to reduce distress associated with concerns about COVID-19. There is an urgent need for publicly available strategies to reduce COVID-19 related distress. This project does not aim to treat a mental disorder but rather alleviate distress and improve coping in people with distress about COVID-19. The most common mental health programs implemented in the pandemic are videoconferencing-delivered programs and app programs. This trial compares the efficacy of these two types of programs by comparing CWC and a proven mental health app program. We hypothesise that CWC will result in greater reductions in anxiety, depression, and worry relative to the app to manage distress. Adults who screen positive for psychological distress will be randomized to PM+ or a control condition. PM+ will comprise 6 x 60-minute sessions delivered by a clinical psychologist via teleconferencing to groups of 4 people at a time. The control arm will direct people to a portal with stress coping strategies. All participants will be assessed at baseline, post-intervention, and 3 and 6 months follow-up.
Interventions
There are two arms to this trial. Arm 1: Coping with COVID. Arm 2: App program. The Coping with COVID program is an evidence-based psychological intervention that is available from www.traumaticstressclinic.com. Therapy is administered once-weekly 60 minute sessions by clinical psychologists over 6 weeks delivered via teleconferencing to groups of 4 people at a time. In Coping with COVID a clinical psychologist will teach the following stress coping strategies: anxiety reduction, problem solving
There are two arms to this trial. Arm 1: Coping with COVID. Arm 2: App program. The Coping with COVID program is an evidence-based psychological intervention that is available from www.traumaticstressclinic.com. Therapy is administered once-weekly 60 minute sessions by clinical psychologists over 6 weeks delivered via teleconferencing to groups of 4 people at a time. In Coping with COVID a clinical psychologist will teach the following stress coping strategies: anxiety reduction, problem solving, behavioral activation, worry management, and accessing social support. This will occur will via educational sessions, group discussions via teleconference, and handouts to be completed between sessions; handouts will require approximately 30 minutes per week. The duration of the study for any participant will conclude after a 6-month follow-up assessment, resulting in participation duration of 33 weeks. Adherence will be assessed by monitoring participants' attendance at videoconferencing sessions via a checklist maintained by the clinical psychologist.
Sponsors
UNSW Sydney
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Treatment
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
Inclusion Criteria: • Score of greater than or equal to 3 on the General Health Questionnaire • Aged at least 18 years • Sufficient English language comprehension • Access to teleconferencing platform
Exclusion criteria
Exclusion Criteria: • Current psychosis • Imminent suicidal risk • Current substance dependence (but not abuse) No access to internet-based access to teleconferencing facility
Outcome results
None listed