ABSTRACT
Within the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted critical inequalities affecting undocumented communities and resulting in particularly heightened stress for members of these communities. In addition to the stress associated with COVID-19, immigrants in the United States were more than ever subjected to a hostile antiimmigrant climate under Trump's administration. Given this compounded stress, the impact of the pandemic on mental health is likely to be disproportionately experienced by undocumented immigrants. In response, a group of psychologists partnered with a leading immigrant rights advocacy organization and formed a reciprocal collaboration to support undocumented communities. A major focus of the collaboration is to foster learning, supporting members of the immigrant community to contribute to their own well-being and others in the community. Accordingly, the collaborative developed and delivered a web-based mental health education session to the immigrant community and to practitioners serving this population. The session presented the use of healing circles as a strength-based approach to building resilience and also sought feedback regarding specific features of healing circles that can enhance their effectiveness in managing distress. Survey data and qualitative findings from this study show that those who participated in the web-based program perceived the session as validating and informative. Findings also underscored the need for creating safe spaces for community members to be vulnerable about their lived experiences while promoting ownership of their narratives. We discuss practical implications pertaining to the development and facilitation of social support groups for immigrants led by nonspecialist community members trained for this role. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) Impact Statement We describe a reciprocal collaboration between psychologists and an immigrant-led advocacy organization for the purposes of supporting undocumented immigrants in tailoring culturally congruent therapeutic approaches for fostering resilience as they face multiple stressors due to interlocking crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and antiimmigrant policies. The collaboration led to the development and delivery of a web-based session that provided immigrant community members and practitioners with recommendations for facilitating healing circles as a strength-based and culturally responsive approach to fostering peer-led social support during stressful times. Findings highlight the need for creating such safe spaces for community members to be vulnerable about their lived experiences and feel validated. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved) Abstract (Spanish) En los Estados Unidos (EE.UU.), la pandemia de COVID-19 puso en evidencia desigualdades criticas que afectan a las comunidades indocumentadas y que provocan un estres particularmente elevado entre sus miembros. Ademas del estres asociado con la COVID-19, los inmigrantes en EE.UU. se vieron sometidos mas que nunca a un clima hostil antiinmigracion bajo la administracion Trump. Dado este mayor estres, es probable que los inmigrantes indocumentados hayan sufrido de manera desproporcionada el impacto de la pandemia en la salud mental. En respuesta, un grupo de psicologos se asocio con una organizacion importante de defensa de los derechos de los inmigrantes y acordaron una colaboracion reciproca para apoyar a las comunidades indocumentadas. Uno de los principales objetivos de la colaboracion es promover el aprendizaje, apoyando a los miembros de la comunidad inmigrante para que incidan en su propio bienestar y en el de los demas miembros de la comunidad. En consecuencia, gracias a esta colaboracion, se desarrollo una sesion educativa sobre salud mental basada en Internet, que se impartio a la comunidad inmigrante y a los profesionales que atienden a esta poblacion. En la sesion se presento el uso de los circulos de sanacion como un enfoque basado en las fortalezas para fomentar la resiliencia. Asimismo, se recabo retroalimentacion sobre las caracteristicas especificas de los circulos de sanacion que pueden ser mas eficaces en la gestion del estres. Los datos de la encuesta y los hallazgos cualitativos de este estudio muestran que quienes participaron en el programa basado en Internet percibieron la sesion como informativa y promotora de sentimientos de valor. Los resultados tambien subrayaron la necesidad de crear espacios seguros para que los miembros de la comunidad se muestren vulnerables acerca de sus experiencias, al tiempo que se promueve la apropiacion de sus narrativas. Analizamos las implicaciones practicas relativas al desarrollo y la facilitacion de grupos de apoyo social para inmigrantes dirigidos por miembros de la comunidad no especializados que han recibido una capacitacion para esta funcion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The COVID-19 pandemic is a traumatic stressor resulting in anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and burnout among healthcare workers. We describe an intervention to support the health workforce and summarize results from its 40-week implementation in a large, tri-state health system during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: We conducted 121 virtual and interactive Stress and Resilience Town Halls attended by 3555 healthcare workers. Town hall participants generated 1627 stressors and resilience strategies that we coded and analyzed using rigorous qualitative methods (Kappa = 0.85). RESULTS: We identify six types of stressors and eight types of resilience strategies reported by healthcare workers, how these changed over time, and how town halls were responsive to emerging health workforce needs. We show that town halls dedicated to groups working together yielded 84% higher mean attendance and more sharing of stressors and resilience strategies than those offered generally across the health system, and that specific stressors and strategies are reported consistently while others vary markedly over time. CONCLUSIONS: The virtual and interactive Stress and Resilience Town Hall is an accessible, scalable, and sustainable intervention to build mutual support, wellness, and resilience among healthcare workers and within hospitals and health systems responding to emerging crises, pandemics, and disasters.