Building Resilience in Times of Coronavirus: a guide for individuals, organizations and communities

UAB Barcelona Summer School

Number of credits: 6 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS)
Course Fee: 850 €
Course Fee for UAB students: 200 €
Teaching Language: English
Place: UAB Campus Belltaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès), Barcelona
Teaching Period:  12 July to 30 July

Enrol now

Enrolment guidelines

Contact: summer@uab.cat

 

PROFESSOR BIO INFORMATION

Ingeborg Porcar Becker: Psychologist (Ph.D), Accreditation in Clinical Psychology and Crisis Management, Associated Professor at UAB, Founder and Director of the UTCCB, a Trauma, Crisis and Conflict Center at the Faculty for Psychology at UAB.

Alicia Álvarez Garcia: PhD in clinical Psychology and a specialization on emergencies, catastrophes, and urgencies as well as in PTSD and trauma. She has 11 years of experience both on clinical practice and crisis response management. Currently she is the Care&Research director at the UTCCB from UAB and combines this position with her job as lecturer in different universities as Universitat de Barcelona, Universitat Politècncia de Barcelona, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya and the Harvard Medical School from Boston.

Nathalie García Manitz: Master's degree in clinical psychology. Trained as a trauma, crisis and disaster psychologist. Founder and coordinator at SEP, the Psychological Emergencies Service in Andorra from the 2017 to 2020. She has been the Andorran observer member from 2015 to 2020 of the Standing Committee on Crisis and Disaster Psychology at the EFPA. Psychologist and trainer at UTCCB, the Crisis Center at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).

Department of Psychology

E-mail: ingeborg.porcar@uab.cat; aalvarez@utccb.net; ngarcia@utccb.net   

 

ACADEMIC GUIDE      
Contents overview

In December 2019, the first cases of a new virus began to be known, which was later called Covid19. Much has been researched and written since then on the mechanisms of contagion, why in some people this disease is so serious and how to protect ourselves from it. But there is much less information that deals with the psychological effects of becoming seriously ill from this disease or how the grieving processes of those who have lost a family member have been affected by sanitary conditions of Covid19. There is also less information about how the pandemic and the different forms of lockdowns have impacted on the general population and on groups of special vulnerability.

This course, designed for students with basic notions of psychology, medicine, nursing or public health, seeks to offer a broad vision, based on evidence, on the mental health of people during and after the pandemic. Those with more focused background and / or experience in these fields will profit from the course particularly, though it still remains suitable for all interested. Two thematic blocks will be the main elements of its content: understanding how and why the pandemic has affected us and knowing the possible alternatives for preventive and rehabilitative interventions.

 

Week programme

Week	Contents	Teaching/learning activities
1	The psychological impact of Covid19 on the general population The biological and psychological effects of stress and uncertainty Risk factors related to the person and the social situation during the pandemic Risk factors associated to the lockdowns and special conditions due to the management of the pandemic Protective factors associated to the person and her or his social situation during the pandemic Other variables with impact on the mental health of persons during the pandemic	Video teaching Case studies Group discussions Problem solving Written exercises Role playing Teamwork Quick tests
2	The psychological impact of Covid 19 on different population groups Covid patients admitted to ICU Bereaved Children Elderly Healthcare professionals Migrants Other vulnerable groups	Video teaching Case studies Group discussions Problem solving Written exercises Role playing Teamwork Quick tests
3	How to prevent the chronification of the psychological effects of the pandemic   How to assess the impact Psychoeducation Group techniques for recovery. Self-care techniques for responders. Trauma therapy CBT group techniques	Video teaching Case studies Group discussions Problem solving Written exercises Role playing Teamwork Quick tests

 

Evaluation

This course is based on the continuous evaluation, that is, throughout the three weeks we will generate evidence that at the end will lead to the final grade.

1. Almost every morning we will first do a short test to help us to check if we should revisit certain concepts. The average grade of these tests makes 35% of the final grade.
2. During the course, the students will apply the proposed competencies to different scenarios, and apply their knowledge to different situations to which the groups of affected people have been exposed, based on real situations proposed by the professors. We will do written exercises and role-playings and the average of these contributions will make 30% of the final grade.
3. The final evaluation will consist of the complete design of the best possible intervention for a community affected by the pandemic and the presentation of that design in front of the group of colleagues of the same course in a final seminar. This is a group work and will make 35% of the final grade. This final evaluation will be presented to all other students in the course on July 29.

 

Links and references

• Bao, Y., Sun, Y., Meng, S., Shi, J., and Lu, L. (2020). 2019-nCoV epidemic: address mental health care to empower society. Lancet 395, E37–E38. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30309-3
• Brooks, S. K., Webster, R. K., Smith, L. E., Woodland, L., Wessely, S., Greenberg, N., et al. (2020). The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence. The Lancet 395, 912–920. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30460-8
• de Carvalho, P. M., Moreira, M. M., de Oliveira, M. N. A., Landim, J. M. M., and Neto, M. L. R. (2020). The psychiatric impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak. Psychiatry Res. 286:112902. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112902
• Duan, L., and Zhu, G. (2020). Psychological interventions for people affected by the COVID-19 epidemic. Lancet Psychiatry 7, 300–302.
• Gausman, J., and Langer, A. (2020). Sex and gender disparities in the COVID-19 pandemic. J. Womens Health 29, 465–466. doi: 10.1089/jwh.2020.8472
• Hilt, L., and Pollak, S. (2012). Getting out of rumination: comparison of three brief interventions in a sample of youth. J. Abnorm. Child Psychol. 40, 1157–1165. doi: 10.1007/s10802-012-9638-3
• Lima, C. K. T., de Carvalho, P. M. M., de Lima, I. A. S., de Nunes, J. V. A. O., Saraiva, J. S., de Souza, R. I., et al. (2020). The emotional impact of coronavirus 2019-Ncov (New Coronavirus Disease). Psychiatry Res. 287:112915. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2020.112915