Prior research on psychological responses to collective trauma has generally relied on quantitative data and tended to focus on singular events; most qualitative work has been conducted on small, non-representative samples. Few studies have sought to understand community responses to multiple types of traumatic events using qualitative data from epidemiological samples. We collected data from a representative sample of Florida residents (N=1518) in October 2017, shortly after Hurricane Irma and the highly publicized Pulse Nightclub shooting, both in Florida. Participants were asked to provide a text response to the question, “Overall, what are your thoughts and feelings about the recent natural and man-made disasters (e.g., mass violence)?” Of respondents, 786 completed the question.

A subsample of 151 responses was randomly selected for first cycle open-coding by three independent coders. Twenty-one topics (including gun control, government, religiosity, and mental health) were identified as codes. Responses were also grouped by which types of disaster the respondent discussed (i.e., man-made, natural, or both). Differences were resolved by consensus and discussions with Lead Investigators. From these codes, key themes were identified using a grounded theory approach. Salient themes identified included: concern over perceived severity and frequency of events, distress over guns and violence, expression of sadness, inflicting blame, and acceptance of outcomes. Further, these themes highlighted the ways in which individuals coped (proactive coping) or responded (reactive responding) to collective trauma. We found distinct differences between the responses of individuals who discussed natural disasters as opposed to those who discussed man-made disasters. Reactive responding themes included mental health and loss of morals. The percentage of these themes was highest amongst responses discussing only man-made disasters. Proactive coping themes, including acceptance and religiosity, were the highest in percentage in responses discussing man-made disasters or when discussing both man-made and natural disasters.

These findings highlight how qualitative feedback can clarify important differences in response patterns among those exposed to man-made and natural disasters. By identifying themes specific to coping and reacting strategies, future interventions can be better tailored towards addressing impacted communities and their psychosocial responses to collective trauma.

Background/Context: The COVID-19 pandemic has a profound impact on mental health. As millions of Americans deal with unemployment, the loss of loved ones, the isolation that comes with social distancing, and possibly contracting the disease themselves, many are also struggling with anxiety, fear, and loneliness. This presentation will describe the development and evaluation of a campaign aimed at addressing these concerns.

Description: To help people cope with these emotions, NORC @ the University of Chicago has led the development of How Right Now/Que’ Hacer Ahora (HRN), a communications campaign that aims to increase people’s ability to adapt and be resilient throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. HRN uses targeted messages—that feature real people talking about their emotional responses to the pandemic—to drive audiences to a website full of evidence-based, feeling- and situation-specific resources. These resources are available in both English and Spanish.

Lessons Learned: Since its official launch in August 2020, HRN has had to be nimble and responsive, as the pandemic has shifted and American’s environments and mental health and emotional wellbeing needs also shifted. Formative research revealed a need to validate peoples’ experiences and acknowledge of the severity of their situations, develop actionable content that doesn’t create additional barriers, and be culturally responsive. Along the way, HRN has had to address the emerging need for self-care, supportive grief resources, and gratitude as a coping mechanism. Early evaluation data suggest that approximately a quarter of HRN’s audiences report exposure to HRN or similar content, and those have higher odds of reporting pandemic-related stress; information seeking; and confidence in their ability to bounce back.

Recommendations/Implications: Even as America moves into a new a new phase with the rollout of a COVID vaccine, and begins to recover, there will continue to be a need for mental health and emotional wellbeing support. Future HRN efforts will remain nimble and response and these needs unveil themselves.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic have negatively affected many people’s mental health and created new barriers for people already suffering from mental illness. Community preparedness and resilience might play an important role in the face of COVID-19 pandemic. However, the effect of community resilience on the aggregated state-level disparities in the mental disorder has been rarely investigated in the US.

Methods: The percentage of adults with depressive or anxiety disorder in the past 7 days in each state was derived from the internet-based National Household Pulse Survey. A total of 25-wave data collected among 48 states from April 23, 2020 to March 1, 2021 were used. Retrieved from the U.S. Health data, the COVID-19 related community resilience estimate was used to stratify populations with three risk levels of COVID-19 infection (i.e., low, medium, high). State-level demographic characteristics (e.g., population density, percentages of people with high education), and healthcare access (e.g., rates of primary care providers and mental health providers) were retrieved from the American Community Survey and U.S. Health Data. Linear mixed effect model was employed to test the research hypothesis after adjusting for the repeated measures and covariates.

Results: The prevalence of adults with mental illness among the states ranges widely, while an increasing temporal trend of mental health disorder of the 48 states was observed (β=0.31, 95%CI: 0.28~0.34). States with lower community resilience (i.e., high risk levels of COVID-19 infection) experienced higher prevalence of mental health disorder (β=1.33, 95%CI: 0.52~2.15). The rate of primary care provider was negatively associated with the prevalence of mental health disorder (β=-1.15, 95%CI: -2.13~-0.16) while the rate of mental health provider showed positive effect (β=1.50, 95%CI: 0.67~2.32).

Conclusions: Despite of the wide range across the states, the prevalence of mental health disorder were all consistently increasing during COVID-19 pandemic. States with low community resilience and less access to healthcare had higher proportion of mental health disorder. Enhancing community resilience might effectively mitigate the population mental health disorder. Findings from this study could aid policymakers and public health officials in modelling these differential impacts and develop plans to reduce the disaster’s potential population mental effects.

Social connectedness is critical for children, youth, and young adults with serious emotional disturbances (SED), and their families to access and engage in behavioral health and recovery support services. Studies indicate that high social connectedness among youth is associated with school attachment, civic engagement, and overall well-being operationalized by various measures such as optimism, hope, coping, happiness, and life satisfaction. Although it is unclear what is the true impact of the COVID-19 pandemic situation on youth’s mental health, it is clear that there is a continued and urgent need to strengthen and enhance systems of care to connect youth with SED and families to services and supports.

The Community Early Emotional Support, Assistance, and Wellness for Children and Families (CEESAW) project, which is supported by SAMHSA, is grounded in the recovery-oriented systems of care (ROSC) framework to implement a streamlined System of Care (SOC) in Hancock County, Ohio. The ROSC is centered on the concept that a network of community-based services and supports should be driven by the individual and involve the family. The goal of the project is to create sustainable infrastructure and services that strengthen the determinants of improved behavioral health outcomes for children and youth (birth-17) and transitional young adults (18-21) with SED, and their families. The project implements multi-level interventions: 1) community awareness and education; 2) inter- and intra-organization level policies; 3) provider and workforce development (including peers); and 4) client level services and recovery supports for the family.

Preliminary outcomes data indicate that the ROSC framework is facilitating positive results for youth participating in the project in multiple areas including school attendance, perception of health, coping skills, suicide ideation, and social connections, despite the pandemic situation. Process evaluation findings indicate that inter-organizational networks are essential to the advancement and sustainability of a SOC approach. Lessons learned from the project’s implementation of ROSC framework across agencies, policy changes, workforce development, and enhancement of client- and family-centric support services will also be highlighted.

The project findings should inform other communities, especially rural, faced with challenges in efforts to streamline services with youth with SED and their families.