ABSTRACT
Filipinos are often reluctant to seek professional mental health (MH) help. However, literature reveals that online counselling is preferable to face‐to‐face (F2F) MH services, with the pandemic possibly magnifying technology's anonymity and disinhibiting benefits. To further explore facilitators of online MH help‐seeking, this study tapped into the lived stories of Filipino adults who experienced at least one counselling session from March 2020 to March 2022. Among 83 screened respondents, 11 semistructured interviews were transcribed and analysed following Crossley's (2000) method. Findings reveal an overarching online MH counselling narrative composed of three phases and their respective events: (a) Precounselling (Resiliency Narrative versus MH Awareness, Turning Point, and Linking versus Searching);(b) Counselling (Two‐way Introduction, Unloading and Untangling, and Decision to Maintain or Terminate);and (c) Postcounselling (Relapse and Journey towards Growth and Advocacy). Three all‐encompassing facilitators were embedded throughout the process: Autonomy, Financial Capability, and MH Institutions. Notably, participants attributed their MH help‐seeking to autonomy, despite culture and stigma, because of enabling environments that entail heightened MH literacy, positive past experiences with professional MH help, social support and encouragement, and a sense of shared reality. Benefits unique to online counselling were also apparent among participants' narratives, including alleviating geographical boundaries and added financial and personal pressures. Overall, findings posit that Filipino adults consider online counselling as a preferable alternative to F2F counselling, thus necessitating further development and institutional support. [ FROM AUTHOR]
ABSTRACT
The Chinese government has curbed the rapid transmission of COVID-19 through a population flow control rarely seen in history. What is the effect of population flow control on pandemic prevention and control? How does it affect China's population mobility and short-term population distribution? In this paper, an SEIR model of virus transmission dynamics is used to evaluate the effectiveness of the control measures, and mobile location data are employed to track the temporal and spatial changes of population mobility in China, in order to review the positive and negative effects of population flow control during the major outbreaks of COVID-19: (1) Population flow control has significantly stabilized the daily new infection, serving as an essential part of China's non-pharmacological intervention measures in response to major public emergencies of COVID-19. Population flow control postponed the arrival of the peak day of daily new infections in China by 1.9 times, and reduced the number of newly infected people on that day by 63.4%. In the selected 5 provinces, 5 cities in Hubei, and 6 cities outside Hubei, the peak days were postponed by 1.4-8 times, 5.6-16.7 times, and 2.3-7.2 times, respectively, and the number of newly infected people on that day was reduced by 56.9%-85.5%, 62.2%-89.2%, and 67.1%-86.2%, respectively. Therefore, population flow control bought valuable buffer time for the prevention and control of the pandemic, and greatly weakened the impact of concentrated transmissions on medical facilities. (2) Population flow control limited intercity population flow. From January to April 2020, the average daily population flow intensity in China decreased by 40.18% compared with the same period in 2019. In particular, the coming-back-to-work flow after the Spring Festival travel rush in 2020 (from January 25 to February 18) decreased by 66.4% on average. (3) Population flow control and people's fear of the pandemic greatly affected the Spring Festival travel rush in 2020, and the spatial and temporal and distribution of China's population was changed for a short period. This paper helps the understanding of the impact of the population flow control strategy introduced by the government on major public emergencies, as well as the influences of geographical characteristics upon on the population flow and distribution. © 2022, Science Press. All right reserved.