Theses Doctoral

Examining the COVID-19 pandemic´s compounded health effects on mental and psychosocial health in Low- and Middle-Income Country (LMIC) settings in Southeast Asia – An in-depth case study of the Philippines

Ocampo, Joanne Michelle F.

This study´s overarching objective analyzed the intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic, its direct impacts of disease and indirect impacts of related containment measures, and impact on the mental and psychosocial health of health workers and people from the wider population in Luzon, in the Philippines. This study focused on the Philippines, an LMIC setting in Southeast Asia, where many remained at-risk for exposure to infectious disease risks associated with COVID-19, and other conditions provoking poor mental and psychosocial health outcomes.

This study included a focus on mental health, going beyond only its clinically oriented and severe health outcomes, and to also include psychosocial health to acknowledge and underscore the importance of support systems and relational, non-clinical aspects related to human well-being. This study first inquired with the emerging, peer-reviewed research literature, and then examined two sets of perspectives to meet its overarching objective: the Filipino health practitioner workforce, and the broader Filipino community in Luzon. Concretely, the first paper examined and evaluated the literature at the intersection of the COVID-19 pandemic and mental and psychosocial health in the Philippines. It used a scoping review method on peer-reviewed literature first regarding three Southeast Asian LMIC settings to identify, from a total of 405 references, 76 articles specifically about the Philippines.

This review was guided by the Population(/Participants)/Concept/Context, or PCC-model, and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews, or PRISMA-ScR. The second paper examined health worker perspectives on mental and psychosocial health policy, services, and programming at various phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. This qualitative examination aimed to learn deeply about eight different health worker perspectives, using a constructivist epistemological orientation and guidance from grounded theory and thematic analysis in semi-structured, in-depth interviews with eight different health workers in the Philippines.

The final and third paper examined community perspectives on mental and psychosocial health in urban and rural, provincial settings during various phases of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. This inductive qualitative work included semi-structured focus group interviews with 23 people from different urban and rural, provincial settings in the Luzon region of the Philippines, and had a constructivist epistemological orientation and leaned on guidance from grounded theory and thematic analysis to facilitate the communities´ voice and expression in this work.

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More About This Work

Academic Units
Population and Family Health
Thesis Advisors
Kachur, Stephen Patrick
Wessells, Michael G.
Degree
Dr.P.H., Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Published Here
May 31, 2023