Authors (including presenting author) :
Hong BSM (1), Cheung JCC (1), Chong BW (1), Chan FKW (1), So TY(1) and To CKM (1)
Affiliation :
(1) Occupational Therapy Department, Tai Po Hospital
Introduction :
Since the COVID-19 pandemic happened in 2020, the long-term battle caused a new challenge to mental health around the world. People experienced different levels of depressed mood, anxiety and sense of loneliness, when facing various preventive measures, social distancing and service suspension.
Objectives :
"5 ways in Pandemic" was launched which aimed to maintain mental wellbeing & positive lifestyle of clients’ in community.
Methodology :
Participant and Program:
48 active cases in adult community psychiatry service (CPS) from North District & Tai Po District were recruited in voluntary basis from January to July 2021. Client who diagnosed mentally retardation, had problem in communication or active substance abuser were excluded. This program was modified from “5 ways of Wellbeing” into shorter period of time, and added elements of lifestyle redesign. Participant would complete 4 individual sessions within 6 to 8 weeks.
Outcome Measure:
General Anxiety Disorder Assessment (GAD-7), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and De Jong Gierveld Loneliness Scale (DJGLS-6) were used to measure mental wellbeing before & after the program.
Statistical Analyses:
All statistical analyses were conducted in SPSS (IBM Corporation)
Result & Outcome :
36 of 48 participants completed the whole program. The mean age is 47.9 years, 19 participants (52.8%) were female. Wilcoxon Signed rank test indicated that the mean post-test scores were significantly improved than pre-test in all assessments. GAD-7 mean scores reduced from 8.09 to 6.14 (p=0.016), PHQ-9 mean scores reduced from 9.19 to 5.97 (p<0.001), DJGLS-6 reduced from 4.08 to 3.42 (p=0.023).
In addition, Two-way ANOVA was used to test the change in distribution of clients among severity of depressive score (PHQ-9), and found a significant shift toward less depressive symptoms (p=0.003).
In conclusion, the result suggested that the “5 Ways in Pandemic” program was effective in reducing depression, anxiety and sense of loneliness. It could support clients' mental wellbeing and maintain a positive lifestyle during the pandemic. We suggest this program could be continued in the community setting or in out-patients setting and would be beneficial to the mental health of our clients.
