Mental Health clinic adapts to 52nd FW needs during COVID-19

SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, RP, GERMANY

07.02.2020

Story by Senior Airman Kyle Cope 

52nd Fighter Wing

The 52nd Medical Operations Squadron Mental Health flight here has adopted new procedures to allow its professionals to continue to provide care during COVID-19 while ensuring safety for both the provider and patient.

The mental health clinic provides a range of services to the members of Saber Nation.

“When we talk about the Mental Health flight, we are talking about four elements that include mental health outpatient services, a traditional 50-minute therapy session where we address issues like depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder,” said U.S. Air Force Major Jason Mitchell, 52nd MDOS mental health flight commander and psychologist. “Next we have family advocacy, they do prevention, outreach and address any referrals for maltreatment, any incidents of domestic violence or sexual assault within a relationship with a significant partner. Then we have our Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Treatment element, known as ADAPT. And lastly, our fourth element is Primary Care Behavioral Health, which is the first stop for anyone seeking mental health care.”

Before COVID-19, the mental health flight had specific restrictions on how they could provide treatment to patients.

“Prior to COVID-19, we had a lot of requirements about what we could and could not do over the phone,” Mitchell said. “I could do a virtual health visit with someone at Buechel, for example, but they would have to be in the clinic, a military asset building, with a technician present.”

However, the pandemic changed some of those restrictions.

"COVID-19 hit and the Air Force told us not see patients face-to-face anymore,” Mitchell said. “They quickly moved to temporarily remove restrictions on how we could provide care. They said, ‘the primary goal is to continue to provide care to our beneficiaries. There are all these applications out there like Skype, Zoom and Teams. Try them and see what works.’.”

Mental health was already moving in the direction of some of these abilities, however the pandemic and its social distancing requirements prompted some of the innovation to move quicker.

“A lot of innovation was in its infancy stage before COVID-19,” Mitchell said. “We have limited providers and often have gaps in specialty services, so we were trying to leverage telehealth services to extend our capabilities prior to the virus. However, with COVID-19, we are rapidly developing them now and they will be in place after COVID-19, which hopefully will provide a bigger breadth of resources and services available.”

After the pandemic ends and life returns to normal, the mental health flight plans to return to in-person care, however they also hope to continue to have telehealth capabilities when needed.

“I think both with provider and patient preference, we will return to face-to-face appointments as soon as we can,” Mitchell said. “There is a lot of value to having the patient in the room, but because we are a mobile force, having more capability to see people remotely provides patients more choice in their healthcare.”

Despite challenges members of the 52nd Fighter Wing face during the present pandemic, the mental health flight is noticing some unconsidered benefits of the situation.

“Out of 49 patients I have on my caseload, I have had six patients terminate since April 1st, 2020, meaning they are doing great since COVID-19 and completed their treatment plan, and others are also improving,” said U.S. Air Force Major Cara Grausam, 52nd MDOS mental health flight element chief and clinical social worker.

Grausam attributed the general improved status of some of her patients to life and work changes that are occurring due to COVID-19.

Grausam said some of her patients discovered that working flexible and teleworking schedules, like working a week on and a week off, decreased a huge amount of their occupational stressors.

Additionally, the pandemic resulted in service members making changes to their family life.

“It has increased family time, so they are spending more time with family and more time outdoors,” Grausam said. “They are doing a ton of hiking and walking, are exploring Germany, buying milk and eggs from the farms around them, and they are talking with their neighbors while physically distancing. Throughout all these activities, they are taking their kids with them, so they are spending more quality time with loved ones.”

Mitchell also noticed that many of his patients improved with the increased workplace flexibility COVID-19 has brought through options such as teleworking.

“Prior to COVID-19, my typical enlisted troop was working 40 hours a week on base, pursing a degree online and trying to maximize their weekends in Europe by traveling. None of those things are bad, but I think the majority of our patients were overextending themselves. The pandemic has allowed more flexibility for a lot of the patients. The majority of our patients have found it to be an improvement.”

Mitchell suggested that in some work environments it might be possible for the workplace flexibility to continue after COVID-19, making some of the benefits they have noticed permanent.

“I have seen various tech companies move towards flexible work schedules where as long as you get the job done, they do not care how you do it,” Mitchell said. “They have ping-pong tables and lounge spaces and people choose the hours they want to come in. There is a potential option for more flexibility, that if you have a computer and dependable motivated staff, you can do taskers and other work from home. Perhaps that would continue the increased mental wellbeing we are seeing in some beneficiaries.”

Anyone seeking mental health care should call the appointment line at DSN: 452-8333 or commercial: 06565-618333 to initiate mental health services.

• Date Taken: 07.02.2020
• Date Posted: 07.02.2020 03:22
• Story ID: 373296
• Location: SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE, RP, DE