The Development and Psychometric Properties of the Impact of Covid-19 Scale (Ic19-S): A Factor Analysis Approach.

BACKGROUND: Individuals are exhibiting COVID-19 anxiety- related responses including psychological impact besides physiological, social, and economic impacts of COVID-19 which are prevalent across countries and territories. COVID-19 anxiety-related responses include anxiety of coronavirus transmission, fear of foreigners with perceived infection transmissibility, and stress of socioeconomic conditions. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The current study developed and psychometrically validated 37 items Impact of COVID-19 Scale (IC19-S) to assess COVID-19 related factors in to facilitate healthcare planning and management among general public. The IC19-S aims to assess COVID-19 related anxiety and predict the mental health impact of future epidemics or pandemics. RESULTS: The factor analysis yielded a 3 factor solution namely: COVID-19 Psychological Impact - anxiety of transmission and infection (including apprehensions, compulsive acts, posttraumatic impact, and misinformation); COVID-19 Social Impact - fear of foreigners for infection transmission (including disease transmission, xenophobia); and COVID-19 Economic Impact - distress towards the economic conditions (including poverty, unemployment and deflation) for personal and family care. The factors showed that scale had high internal consistency, construct, convergent and discriminant validity and intercorrelation. CONCLUSION: The IC19-S is a consistent and valid tool to measure the impact of COVID-19 on various life aspects in a range of population.

Changes in Lifestyle, Health Practices, and Perceived Anxiety amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Cross-Sectional Study Conducted on the General Population of Pakistan.

Background: The emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created unprecedented challenges across the globe. In addition to its debilitating impacts on health, the pandemic has also resulted in sudden changes in the quality of life. Our study aims to assess and highlight the alterations in lifestyle, health practices, and perceived anxiety in amongst the Pakistani denizens during the categorical lockdown across the country. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted during April 2020 through an online self-administered questionnaire using the snowball sampling technique. The online survey included a diversified set of questions ranging from the demographics, participants' sleeping routine, physical activity, hygiene habits, daily routine, and dietary habits during the quarantine period. It also assessed their anxiety through a series of questions, stretching from their own apprehension of their mental health to their assumption regarding the uncertainty of the future. SPSS v23 was used for data analysis, and chi-square test was applied. Results: A total of 384 respondents were included in the study. The mean age of the participants was 21.26 ± 4.267 years. It was observed that 203 (52.9%) individuals spent most of their time in self-isolation on social media, and 167 (43.5%) of participants claimed to be undertaking online classes or watching television. Furthermore, half of the participants noted that their sleep duration had increased 194 (50.5%), along with increased levels of perceived anxiety 242 (63%). Conclusion: The imposed nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19 has extensively affected the daily routine of the people living in Pakistan, eliciting profound changes in their sleeping patterns, dietary habits, mental health, and physical activity. Therefore, addressing the issues that arise amidst the lockdown remains pivotal.

Psychosocial impact of COVID-19 on older adults: A cultural geriatric mental health-care perspectived

This reprinted chapter originally appeared in Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 2020, 63[6-7], 665-667. (The following of the original article appeared in record 2021-00510-023.) States and global health organizations should establish mental health policies for older people who are socially isolated at home or quarantined at health-care facilities (hospital, clinic, isolation unit, daycare, community center, and place of worship) for not only prescribed diet and medications but their mental health care as well. While adherence to social isolation strategies could weaken with time, well-timed geriatric social service intervention could efficiently prevent the morbidity related to geriatric mental health care. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Depression and anxiety among Pakistani healthcare workers amid COVID-19 pandemic: A qualitative study.

Objectives: The sudden COVID-19 crisis required a determined effort on the part of the healthcare workers (HCWs) and excessive workload increased the risk of depressive and anxious symptoms in frontliners. The aim of the study was to assess anxiety and depression levels among HCWs during times of pandemic and its potential aggravating factors. Materials and methods: A web-based survey was conducted to assess the mental health outcomes of healthcare workers and related factors during the COVID-19 pandemic. For assessing depression and anxiety, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) comprised of 14 items with seven items for depression and seven for anxiety were used. Results: Of all 436 participants, 158 (36.2%) showed noticeable symptoms of depression and 220 (50.4%) showed substantial anxiety symptoms. The majority of them were females. It has been observed in the study that female gender, young, and unmarried marital status are associated with higher scores. HCWs working in urban regions show more depressive symptoms. Mild depression and anxiety ratio are very common among participants (21.3%). Factors found to be associated with higher anxiety and depression are the increased number of deceased patients with lower family support. Conclusions: Altogether, the present study findings present concerns about the psychological well-being of all HCWs during the acute COVID-19 outbreak. Therefore, steps should be taken to protect them from mental exhaustion, so they may fight with more zeal against the infectious pandemic that has caused significant impacts worldwide.

The Hidden Shadow Pandemic of Marital Rape During COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak: A Critical Role of Women’s March for Awareness of Rape, Consent, and Sexual and Reproductive Rights

Introduction:Aurat March?the women?s rights movement has left an indelible imprint on a contradictive ensemble of a revolutionary women?s rights demand in a conventional socializing segment of society. Women?s March is an intersectional, intergenerational and inclusive feminist discourse centrally concerned with the health, education, engagement, advocacy, gender equality, freedom and empowerment. Anecdotal discourse of Aurat March, enacted amidst COVID-19 pandemic, is centrally concerned with achieving space in private and public sphere and equal sexual and reproductive rights in the marriage institution.Method:A broad research of literature and online data base related to marital rape using PsycINFO, PsycNet, PubMed, ERIC, EMBASE, Scopus, Google Scholar and Elsevier was undertaken. Manual searches of the specific intimate partner violence journals (e.g., Journal of Interpersonal Violence, Journal of Family Issues) and news articles were also included.Result:This analysis provides epistemological and media representation grounds for strategy and intervening analysis on the re-construction of the narrative of semantics of stereotyped gender roles. Further, this paper is embedded in the measure of women?s rights, bodily autonomy, sexual and reproductive rights, differential context of consent between sex and rape within the institution of marriage.

Job satisfaction, performance appraisal, reinforcement and job tasks in medical healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

Medical healthcare profession is under immense stress since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak on global scale, and medical healthcare professionals are enduring occupational challenges which entail frontline and non-frontline duties, appraisal and satisfaction with their job. The present study examined perceived job satisfaction as a mediating variable that affects the relationship between performance appraisal and reinforcement on performing job tasks among medical healthcare professionals during COVID-19. A sample (N = 550) was selected from public and private hospitals' medical healthcare professionals (n = 300 males, and n = 250 females). The results showed that perceived job satisfaction mediates the relationship between performance appraisal and reinforcement on job tasks in medical healthcare professionals. This study could help stakeholders, medical board regulations, mental health practitioners, employers and employees to increment sources which could establish feasible healthcare planning and management. The study has significant implications in mental healthcare, crisis management, human resource planning, effective performance and improvement in well-being of medical workforce's psychological health.

Biopsychosocial-Spiritual Model of COVID-19 for Healthcare Practitioners Amidst and Post-COVID-19.

It can spread from one person to another, is contagious, independent of physical contact, and extremely dangerous - its fear. This review evaluates and examines the distinction between COVID-19 and fear of COVID-19, biopsychosocial-spiritual model of Coronavirus-related anxiety, internalization and externalization of consequential psychological issues. It further offer facilitation of health care practitioners' uniqueness in offering short-term and long-term support for psychosocial, emotional, cognitive, behavioral and mental health repercussions of COVID-19 on individual and community level.

COVID-19 feminist framework and biopsychosocial-spiritual perspective for social workers and mental health practitioners to manage violence, abuse, and trauma against children, women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ during and post-COVID-19.

This article explains the integrated implementation of a COVID-19 Feminist Framework (CFF) and biopsychosocial-spiritual perspective (BPSS-P) on the inclusive equitability of social service providers, practitioners, and policy-developers on global platforms. Mechanisms of CFF and BPSS-P entail the process to address/mitigate institutional inequities, mental health issues, violation of human rights, race/sex/gender-based violence, abuse, and trauma amid COVID-19. This discourse is about raising consciousness, collective liberation, wellbeing, and equality for women, children, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and gender-diverse people. This article further discusses social workers and mental health practitioners' uniqueness for short-term and long-term support for emotional, cognitive-behavioral, and psychosocial repercussions on the individual and community levels.

8 minutes and 46 seconds of ‘I Can’t Breathe’: A call for anti-racist feminist solidarity amid COVID-19

COVID-19 has again exposed the inequality and injustice of race and power deeply rooted in patterns, discourses and institutions. I am writing this article to bring attention to how we need anti-racist feminism now even more than ever. Feminism in social work offers an act of engagement, realization, application and praxis of ideas that challenges the normative response to rethink marginalized and oppressed individuals? suppressed thoughts, voices and lived realities amid the pandemic lockdown. This inclusive article recognizes and acknowledges that the stories, ideas, experiences, vision, and life of every individual matters.

Psychology and politics of COVID-19 misinfodemics: Why and how do people believe in misinfodemics?

Misinfodemics related to COVID-19 have negatively impacted people?s lives, with adverse health and psycho-sociopolitical outcomes. As the scientific community seeks to communicate evidence-based information regarding misplaced preventive strategies and misinformed help-seeking behaviors on global multifaceted systems, a secondary risk has emerged: the effects of misinfodemics on the public. Published articles on PubMed, EMBASE, Google Scholar and Elsevier about COVID-related misinfodemics have been considered and reviewed in this article. This review examines the mechanisms, operational structure, prevalence, predictive factors, effects, responses and potential curtailing strategies of misinfodemics of COVID-19. The present article shows that the popular variants of COVID-19 misinfodemics could be the joint product of a psychological predisposition which is either to reject information from experts or perceive the crisis situation as a product of misinfodemics mechanisms and partisan ideological motivations. The psychological foundations and political disposition of misinfodemics have implications for the development of strategies designed to curtail the negative consequences on public health.

Feminism and gendered impact of COVID-19: Perspective of a counselling psychologist.

When women, girls and gender-diverse people - who have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak since the public health crisis has also become a crisis for feminism - will identify and acknowledge their organismic phenomenological self, wholeness and growth will be fully functioning. Psychological aspects for the public health emergency operated through counselling psychologists to manage mental health, emotional, psychological, cognitive, behavioural, relational and social impacts are fundamental. And the role of counselling psychologists in maintaining personal mental health and their clients is a crucial indicator of collective wellbeing. This perspective is embedded in the gendered approach and feminist framework which attempts to explore and offer the embodied intersectional and divergent impact on living during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.