Rapid Mobilization of Medical Students to Provide Health Care Workers With Emergency Childcare During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

PROBLEM: In March 2020, the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic spread rapidly within the United States and began overwhelming the health care system. To conserve personal protective equipment, reduce the spread of the virus, and keep student learners safe, leaders of medical schools across the country made the difficult decision to suspend in-person clinical experiences. As medical students were sent home and hospital systems ramped up their response to the virus, many essential health care workers (HCWs) faced an immediate challenge. As "nonessential" services such as schools and daycare centers abruptly closed, HCWs serving on the frontlines in inpatient settings needed a way to both fight the pandemic and care for their children. APPROACH: Medical students at Oregon Health & Science University were able to rapidly OR organize to provide childcare for essential HCWs. For roughly 8 weeks following the state of emergency (March 13 through May 15, 2020), students used Twitter and emerging technology to match families in need of childcare with a trainee volunteer. OUTCOMES: By May 15th, the service had successfully fulfilled 181 of the 202 requests for childcare (90%) over the course of 8 weeks. Of the 181 completed childcare requests, 172 (95%) were fulfilled by an individual (1:1 volunteer-to-household pairing), and 9 (5%) were fulfilled by 2 or more volunteers. NEXT STEPS: The trainees who provided childcare will apply the skills learned (e.g., clear communication, grassroots organizing, triaging, leveraging new technology) to patient care. Broader applications for this system include organizing volunteers to conduct contract tracing or to provide public health information in languages other than English. Future research includes examining the effect of the service on the productivity, morale, and mental health of both those who provided and received childcare.

Who Is Caring for Health Care Workers' Families Amid COVID-19?

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, women in medicine, including faculty, residents, medical students, and other health care workers (HCWs), are facing unparalleled challenges. The burdens of pandemic-associated increases in domestic and caregiving responsibilities, professional demands, health risks associated with contracting COVID-19, and the resulting psychosocial distress have exacerbated existing gender disparities at home, at work, and in academia. School and day care closures have created additional childcare needs, primarily for women, yet little support exists for parents and families. These increased childcare and domestic responsibilities have forced women HCWs, who make up the overwhelming majority of the workforce, to adapt their schedules and, in some cases, leave their jobs entirely. In this article, the authors detail how COVID-19 has exacerbated existing childcare accessibility and affordability issues as well as gender disparities. They argue that unless government and health care organization support for childcare increases, families, specifically women and children, will continue to suffer. Lack of access to affordable childcare can prevent HCWs from doing their jobs, including conducting and publishing academic scholarship. This poses incalculable risks to families, science, and society. COVID-19 should serve as a call to action to all sectors, including the government and health care organizations, to prioritize childcare provision and increase support for women HCWs, both now during the pandemic and going forward.

Improving the mental health of abandoned children: Experiences from a global online intervention.

In today's world of global migration and urbanization, millions of children are separated from parents. Their mental health and future competences as citizens depend on the quality of care from foster parents and group home staff in nonparental care settings. Caregivers are challenged by poor work conditions, too many children, and a lack of knowledge about care for traumatized children. How can our profession match this challenge by upscaling interventions? Digital designs for applications of psychology are growing, recently accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis. From 2008, the author developed a blended learning intervention. In partnerships with nongovernmental organizations and government agencies, care recommendations from an international network of researchers are transformed into start-up seminars for staff, followed by a 6-month online classroom education. Students learn and practice how to train local caregiver groups in attachment-based care, using training sessions developed in local languages, adjusted to culture. At present, the author's Fairstart Foundation educated 500 staff from partners in 26 countries, who have trained the caregivers of some 40,000 children. The theoretical, logistic and technical steps from research to daily caregiver-child practices are described, to inspire discussions of how online designs and international partnerships may benefit underserved populations. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Limited Secondary Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Child Care Programs - Rhode Island, June 1-July 31, 2020.

On June 1, 2020, with declines in coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases and hospitalizations in Rhode Island,* child care programs in the state reopened after a nearly 3-month closure implemented as part of mitigation efforts. To reopen safely, the Rhode Island Department of Human Services (RIDHS) required licensed center- and home-based child care programs to reduce enrollment, initially to a maximum of 12 persons, including staff members, in stable groups (i.e., staff members and students not switching between groups) in physically separated spaces, increasing to a maximum of 20 persons on June 29. Additional requirements included universal use of masks for adults, daily symptom screening of adults and children, and enhanced cleaning and disinfection according to CDC guidelines.† As of July 31, 666 of 891 (75%) programs were approved to reopen, with capacity for 18,945 children, representing 74% of the state's January 2020 child care program population (25,749 children).