Division of Insurance Medicine and the COVID-19 pandemic

The RESPOND study

Researchers at the Division of Insurance Medicine are part of an international research project regarding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic which was recently awarded a large research grant from the European Commission.

The direct health effects of COVID-19 have been thoroughly documented. Nonetheless, the health crisis has also revealed important indirect consequences on people’s well-being and mental health. The rush to meet the challenge of the pandemic has left significant gaps in how public healthcare deals with these effects. The EU-funded RESPOND project aims to accurately identify vulnerable groups – including healthcare workers – affected by the pandemic and to evaluate the impact on mental health and well-being. Additionally, the project will address the mental health needs of vulnerable groups by implementing low-intensity scalable psychological programmes and will provide policy recommendations to inform future containment measures, improving quality of life on all levels during the health crisis.

RESPOND is led by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. For more information, please click on the following link: https://respond-project.eu.

Here you will find the policy for the RESPOND study

ICSPRC – International COVID-19 Suicide Prevention Research Collaboration

In response to widespread concerns about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on suicide and suicidal behaviour an international group of suicide prevention researchers from around 30 countries have formed the International COVID-19 suicide prevention research collaboration. The aim of this collaboration is to enhance good quality collaborative research on the prevention and management of suicide and suicidal behaviours in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to maximise the societal impact of research the ICSPRC is working in partnership and collaboration with the International Association of Suicide Prevention (IASP).

You will find more information here

An editorial in Crisis

ICSPRC (International COVID-19 Suicide Prevention Research Collaboration) has published an editorial in Crisis with a title Suicide research, prevention and COVID-19 – Towards a global response and the establishment of an international research collaboration.

You can read it here