Mental Health and Psychosocial Support during the COVID-19 Response

Joseph O. Prewitt Diaz, PhD, is a practitioner-scholar who began his career as a public health worker in the depressed villages of his native Puerto Rico. He was formerly a professor at Pennsylvania State University, where he trained over 120 PhD-level educational leaders. He served as a mental health volunteer at some of the major disasters in the United States, among them the Oklahoma City Bombing and the 9/11 United Recovery in Shanksville, PA. In 1998, he was assigned to International Disaster Services where he implemented mental health and community psychosocial support programs in South America and Southeast Asia. He has worked in over 57 countries as the mental health technical expert for the IFRC/ COVID-19 work group. During his years of service, he received multiple national and international awards for his service, research, and scholarly contributions.

• Part 1: Background of MHPSS Introduction 1. Community-Based Mental Health and Psychosocial Support as a Tool to Address the Societal Needs Raised by COVID-19 2. Activating Community Resilience through Community Capitals After COVID-19 3. Community Engagement in Times of COVID-19 PART 2: ASSESSMENT OF POPULATION NEEDS OF THE MOST VULNERABLE 4. Community Engagement During COVID-19 and Beyond 5. Community-Based Psychosocial Support: A Process for the Protection of Vulnerable Populations During COVID-19 6. Serving the Most Vulnerable: Psychosocial Support in Indigenous Communities in Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru 7. Psychological Support Migration Appeal International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent 8. Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Three African Countries: Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone 9. Addressing Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Needs in Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda PART 3: IMPLEMENTING MENTAL HEALTH AND PSYCHOSOCIAL SUPPORT 10. An Examination of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support in Four Low-Income Countries in South Asia 11. Chronology of MHPSS Interventions in the Americas During the Immediate and Early Recovery 12. Country-Level Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Programs: Moving Forward After COVID-19 13. Mental Health and Psychosocial Support During and After the Pandemic: A Practical Response 14. Monitoring and Evaluation of Mental Health and Psychosocial Support

"An essential read for both mental health and psychosocial support professionals, as well as disaster and crisis leaders and practitioners. Dr. Prewitt Diaz weaves together framing and subject matter expertise that builds on academic research pre-COVID-19 pandemic, emergent literature from 2020 and 2021, as well as key case studies. Most relevant, Dr. Prewitt played a key leadership role in the IFRC America’s COVID-19 operation, supporting the 35 countries that make up the region in designing and implementing robust mental health and psychosocial support programming. . . . Thank you for this vital contribution to the robust mental health and psychosocial support field!"—From the Foreword by Dr. Jono Anzalone, Executive Director at The Climate Initiative, Portland, Maine