2020-2021 Grant in Aid of Research

Mental Health Promotion Intervention during COVID-19.

Juliana Maldonado

This project will aim to alleviate the mental health burden of the population while experiencing Corona Virus (COVID-19) pandemic and the ongoing changes in society. The project will reach out to the general population through social media advertising and a family practice clinic in South Texas. The participants will be tested utilizing the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 scale (GAD) as the pre and post assessment tool. The intervention will be delivered through a series of videos during the first three weeks. Then, with follow up emails/text/calls for the next three weeks, in which participants will be encouraged to continue to practice what they have learned in the videos. According to Jeong et al. (2016), anxiety and anger are commonly reported among people in isolation. However, with early mental health interventions, anxiety may be prevented from becoming long-term posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Doyle et al. (2017) state that wellness requires a person to be aware of the lifestyle choices available to them as well as the will to make the choices to improve mental health. The aim is to reach a balance and engage participants into healthy habits like exercise, sleep, nutrition, relationships, social contact, and participation in meaningful activities, as well as avoiding self-destructive behaviors (Doyle et al., 2017). This project will utilize the WILD 5-Wellness KickStart30 program elements to educate participants on health lifestyle practices through a series of six total videos.