秋葵视频

Kadiatou Diallo-Montford was on the frontlines during the pandemic while she was pursuing her Doctor in Public Health at 秋葵视频. She was working around the clock at Recovery Consultants of Atlanta, a nonprofit health clinic, as an onsite evaluator for patients seeking mental health services. 

鈥淭hese are vulnerable populations,鈥� she explained. 鈥淪ome of them are homeless. Most come in for the health service they need and then leave. They鈥檙e a transient population, a silent group that the rest of us don鈥檛 hear about.鈥�

It was a class in Mental Health Epidemiology that made her realize there was little to no research material on how people living with severe mental illness are affected by pandemics.

鈥淚 wanted to know how adults with severe mental illness were impacted by the pandemic,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here wasn鈥檛 a lot of research focusing on it at the time.鈥� 

That lack of research made it difficult to develop strategies to support mentally ill patients, explained Diallo-Montford鈥檚 dissertation chair and assistant professor of epidemiology Kelly Sullivan, Ph.D. That鈥檚 what brought the two of them together.  

鈥淲e want to support this population, but we need to understand how to support them and their specific needs,鈥� Sullivan said. 鈥淪o we needed data to provide a foundation to help the public health community develop evidence-based decisions.鈥�

Diallo-Montford focused on patients with severe mental illness diagnosed with COVID-19, looking specifically at how sheltering in place affected their cognitive condition. The results, published in , show that the population experienced a substantial increase in severe psychological distress and depression during the pandemic. 

鈥淭he research is really important to quantify and objectively assess what impacts there are,鈥� said Sullivan. 鈥淲e don’t want to operate on just theory, which is very important to inform research and develop best practices. We also need the data to support potential policy change and interventions.鈥� 

Diallo-Montford credits Sullivan鈥檚 class for inspiring her to pursue this avenue of research for her dissertation topic. She said she鈥檚 honored to know that her research will be used to assist public health workers on the front line as they work with these underserved populations living with severe mental illness. 

鈥淚magine what they’re going through, as they try to live with and treat their diagnoses,鈥� Diallo-Montford said. 鈥淎nd then to experience something like COVID-19鈥�how can you be there for them? I’m glad that this study contributed to the literature.鈥�