Thompson Kip V, Eder-Moreau Elizabeth, Cunningham Sara, Yamazaki Yuki, Chen Hang-Yi
New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, 1501 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Division of Psychological and Educational Services, Fordham University, New York, NY 10023, USA.
Behav Sci (Basel). 2022 Jul 23;12(8):249. doi: 10.3390/bs12080249.
The New York State (NYS) Office of Mental Health created the NYS COVID-19 Emotional Support Helpline and enlisted graduate students to provide phone-based emotional support initially to the NYS community. This NYS-funded initiative transformed into providing psychosocial support for callers across the United States. Four NYS doctoral students acted as the helpline agents and received 251 individual calls from May-August 2020. The agents documented the calls with clinical notes which cannot be traced back to specific callers. The purpose of this retrospective qualitative study was to explore the themes that emerged from the calls to give voice to the trauma that callers were reporting during the early phases of the pandemic, and the resilience they demonstrated as they engaged with the Helpline. The agents' clinical transcripts were converted into codes using a critical-constructivist grounded theory approach (Levitt, 2021) with the NVIVO qualitative data analysis software. A second research team audited the initial codes for construct clarity. Emergent themes detailed the unique traumas that helpline callers divulged, how the agents provided support, and the callers' capacities for resilience. Recommendations are suggested to inform clinicians working with pandemic survivors, to offer guidance on providing distance or virtual interventions as well as to enhance policymakers' understanding of addressing mental health needs across populations served via the NYS COVID-19 Emotional Support Helpline.
纽约州心理健康办公室设立了纽约州新冠疫情情绪支持热线，并招募研究生最初为纽约州社区提供电话情绪支持。这项由纽约州资助的倡议后来转变为为美国各地的来电者提供心理社会支持。四名纽约州博士生担任热线接线员，在2020年5月至8月期间接听了251个个人来电。接线员用临床记录记录来电情况，这些记录无法追溯到具体来电者。这项回顾性定性研究的目的是探索来电中出现的主题，以表达来电者在疫情早期报告的创伤，以及他们在与热线互动时所展现的恢复力。使用NVIVO定性数据分析软件，采用批判性建构主义扎根理论方法（莱维特，2021年）将接线员的临床记录转化为编码。另一个研究团队对初始编码的结构清晰度进行了审核。浮现出的主题详细描述了热线来电者透露的独特创伤、接线员提供支持的方式以及来电者的恢复力。建议为治疗疫情幸存者的临床医生提供参考，为提供远程或虚拟干预提供指导，并增进政策制定者对通过纽约州新冠疫情情绪支持热线满足不同人群心理健康需求的理解。
