As year three of the COVID-19 pandemic begins in the United States, uncertainty looms. Our resilience has been tested as COVID-19 has ravaged communities, shut down cities and economies, and laid bare the gaps in our public health systems, illuminating the many ways in which they perpetuate health inequities.

The pandemic has taken an unthinkable toll on our physical, emotional, and mental health—particularly for children and young people.

Even before the pandemic, an alarming number of young people struggled with feelings of helplessness, depression, and thoughts of suicide. Combining the physical threat of a deadly virus and isolation from friends and family, the pandemic is exhausting young people, who have fewer life skills to help them navigate new and unfamiliar contexts.

The future well-being of our country is dependent on how we support and invest in the next generation. Recognizing that truth and answering its call are equity-centered leaders across 44 teams from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF’s) Clinical Scholars program. They are pioneering innovative solutions that ought to be supported and replicated nationwide.

Working In And With Communities

Indianapolis

A team from Indiana University and Indianapolis Public Schools were already working with Indianapolis school districts to bring secondary traumatic stress–related resources to school personnel when COVID-19 interrupted their plans.

They pivoted their research and surveyed personnel from 10 school districts for signs of stress, coping, and resilience, and for their perspectives on the ability of their schools to keep children and school personnel safe. They found that in the months following the arrival of COVID-19, mental health wellness of school personnel drastically declined. Teachers and school support staff reported more sleep difficulties; children had more behavioral health issues; and social connection opportunities were delayed, downsized, or canceled. Students had difficulty adjusting while both witnessing the higher rates of COVID-19 and related deaths in Black and Brown communities and communally experiencing the national racial justice reckoning following numerous tragic killings.

In response, the team collaborated with school principals, social workers, and school resource officers to launch Gents for Success to improve social and emotional coping skills among ninth- and tenth-grade Black males impacted by the “twin pandemics” of racial unrest (sparked by recent incidents of violence against Blacks in the US) and COVID-19. They know strong involvement by school staff is essential for the initiative’s effectiveness and sustainability.

“When we go to different schools, it’s going to be the students, the principals, and the schools that will make the decisions so this work can go beyond us,” says Wanda Thruston, a doctor of nursing practice and clinical assistant professor at Indiana University School of Nursing. “It becomes their project. We’re just here to support that happening.”

The program expanded to middle schools, added music therapy, and has received interest from additional schools. The team provided reports and recommendations from the survey to two districts, along with a larger report on all data received from Indianapolis and the surrounding communities to help personnel cope with stress.

Chicago

In Chicago, a multidisciplinary team including representatives from the University of Chicago, Chicago Public Schools, and the Sinai Urban Health Institute, quickly grasped the increasingly challenging experiences children would face during the pandemic, not only in their schooling but also in disrupted home lives. Recognizing school as a critical venue for providing resources and programs to ensure children’s wellness, the team developed a survey for families with students at two Chicago public schools, particularly children with known chronic health conditions, such as asthma.

Facilitated by the team’s previous work in these two schools and long-lasting partnerships with school staff, the survey was distributed in both English and Spanish to families of students. It posed questions on the challenges of managing chronic conditions stemming from the pandemic’s impacts, as well as on positive things that happened for families.

“The pandemic has been very traumatizing, but we did not want to focus only on the negative experiences,” says Tarrah DeClemente, executive director of the Office of Student Health and Wellness at Chicago Public Schools. “Having families reflect on the positive changes such as more time with family, exercising more, cooking more at home, was important to gain understanding of the entire picture of our communities including strengths and resiliency.”

The team directly supported more than 80 students through distributing asthma toolkits with green cleaning products (to support a clean and healthy home environment) and instruments for asthma management.

San Carlos Apache Tribe

Leolani Ah Quin, clinical director of the San Carlos Apache Tribe Wellness Center and doctor of behavioral health, had long been working to address the existing mental health needs in her community. She recognized that Native American youth are suffering from unique mental health needs during the pandemic, due to the historical trauma that Native communities experience in the US. She and her team assembled a cross-sector coalition to discuss what could be done about this community issue.

Members included numerous civic, cultural, and governmental organizations and groups. The coalition created a 17-week outdoor culture and life skills program for Native youth, where they engaged in physical activity, art classes, Apache Way of Life education, discussion groups, and field trips. Through the integration of health care, behavioral health, education, cultural traditions, and social environmental factors, the group was able to provide a venue for reduction of chronic stress and increased resilience.

During the program, youth built a trail from the Wellness Center campus to a nearby landmark viewpoint. Together, participants explored resiliency and self-care practices through learning about clans and kinship, engaging in self-expression, and spending communal time with other youth, their families, and local leaders. An art installation built at the trail end was designed to be unfinished, inviting visitors to contribute and add to it, helping it adapt to continuously present change.

Adaptive, Innovative, And Scalable

As mental health needs for young people continue to evolve this year, and as uncertainty about the pandemic persists, health care responses need to evolve as well. In particular, there is a need for greater attention to strategic, innovative, cross-sector collaborations and solutions.

Through applying equity-centered leadership skills and working in an interdisciplinary way, these health care providers are transforming clinical approaches into community-centered public health outcomes.

Since 2016, the program center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has provided equity-centered leadership training to 162 RWJF Clinical Scholars Fellows across 28 US states and territories. Contributions by Clinical Scholars illustrate the kinds of solutions that warrant engagement and support from clinicians, researchers, and other funders.

[ad_2]

Originally Appeared Here