Developing and Evaluating the E-Psychological Support Program Based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Healthcare Professionals

The goal of the project; To develop and test the effectiveness of a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Based E-Psychological Support Program that can help healthcare professionals cope with secondary traumatic stress symptoms, anxiety, stress and depression symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Within the scope of the project, a psychological support mobile application based on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, consisting of 6 modules, which healthcare professionals can access with their smart phones, was developed. Based on the stress model, self-monitoring skills, coping with anxiety, behavioral activation skills, cognitive restructuring skills, the e-psychological support application is user-friendly, specific to healthcare professionals and the COVID-19 outbreak. According to the findings obtained from the study, which was designed as a randomized controlled study, the secondary traumatic stress levels, depression, anxiety and stress levels averages of the health workers in the experimental group participating in the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Based E-Psychological Support Program decreased significantly compared to the health workers in the control group. On the other hand, it was determined that there was a significant increase in the perceptions of coping with. Accordingly, it has been found that the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Based, E-Psychological Support Program is effective in reducing the secondary traumatic stress, depression, anxiety and stress levels of healthcare professionals and increasing their perceptions of coping with trauma. It has been demonstrated that e-psychological support application can contribute to the protection of mental health of healthcare professionals, who are at the forefront, in the COVID-19 epidemic, which affects the whole world and affects individuals both physically and spiritually. It can be suggested that a very economical, easy-to-apply and accessible e-psychological support program for healthcare professionals should be made available to all healthcare professionals in our country. When the relevant literature is examined, it has been determined that Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Based online therapy programs specific to healthcare professionals are in the development and trial phase. For this reason, it is considered important that this study is a pioneer in the field at this stage. In this study, the effectiveness of the program applied on depression anxiety stress secondary trauma and coping with trauma was evaluated. In other studies, the effect of the program applied on other variables, such as burnout and traumatic growth, which were not covered in this study, can be evaluated.