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. 2020 Nov 17:11:561742.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.561742. eCollection 2020.

Psychological Support to the Community During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Field Experience in Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy

Fiorello Ghiretti  1 , Gabriela Gildoni  1 , Gaddo Maria Grassi  1 , Laura Torricelli  2 , Elena Benassi  1 , Elisa Bonaretti  1 , Francesca Bonazzi  1 , Sara Borelli  1 , Francesca Cagnolati  1 , Katia Covati  1 , Francesca Errera  1 , Vanessa Finardi  1 , Rossano Grisendi  1 , Jody Libanti  1 , Roberta Lumia  1 , Annachiara Montanari  1 , Giorgia Morini  1 , Sabrina Pettinari  1 , Annamaria Peverini  1 , Caterina Ragone  1 , Marco Santachiara  1 , Valerio Valentini  1 , Agnese Zanchetta  1 , Sabina Zapponi  1 , Luana Pensieri  1 , Michele Poletti  1
Affiliations

Psychological Support to the Community During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Field Experience in Reggio Emilia, Northern Italy

Fiorello Ghiretti et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

We report the field experience of the psychological staff of Azienda USL-IRCCS di Reggio Emilia, a local health system conglomerate serving half a million inhabitants within a catchment area of the Emilia Romagna Region of Italy, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We provided free telephone-based psychological support for the community, with the specific aim of reducing stress caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences, such as quarantine and lock-down. We describe how the community used this opportunity of psychological support in terms of problems reported and interventions provided. Our field experience suggests that a service of phone psychological support is feasible and quickly implementable in the case of sudden emergencies that affect, to different extents, the whole community.

Keywords: coronavirus pandemic; phone assistance; psychological support; psychological trauma; stress exposure.

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Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Number of calls by age range.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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