Mental Health Studies Regarding the COVID-19 Pandemic: Evaluation of the Psychological Strains Associated with the Pandemic, Development of Mobile Phone-Based Applications and Web-Based Psycho-Education Packages

Within the scope of this project, the development of the COVID-19 Distress Scale, DD-Healthy Thinking (GGSD) and GG-OCD-Thought Exercises (GGOKB-DE) aimed at correcting the distorted beliefs and cognitions underlying OCD symptoms and psychological strains associated with COVID-19. It is aimed to introduce two mobile applications named "Two mobile applications" and to prepare a web-based psycho-education package. Within the scope of the project, the COVID-19 Distress Scale was first developed to evaluate the cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions of the psychological responses of individuals to the pandemic in the Turkish sample, and the psychometric properties of the scale were found to be statistically acceptable. It has become very important for people to access psychological service channels without leaving their homes during the pandemic process. For this purpose, two free, user-friendly mobile-based applications (GGOKB-DE and GGSD), which were created according to the principles of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy and that people can use as a self-help tool, were adapted into Turkish. The results of the effectiveness study showed that regular use of these applications significantly reduced the severity of contamination/contamination obsessions, COVID-19-related health concerns, intolerance of uncertainty, and dysfunctional distorted thoughts, which were severely triggered during the pandemic period. In addition, people will be informed about possible psychological symptoms such as anxiety, stress, intolerance to uncertainty, and dysfunctional beliefs; A detailed psycho-educational material on cognitive restructuring-based interventions and how to overcome these problems has been prepared and made available to the public on the website www.kaygiylabasetme.com. It is thought that online or smartphone-based psycho-education and psychological interventions can provide a support network for individuals who spend most of their time at home and can be used as an alternative support method. Considering the fact that people do not prefer to go to psychiatry services, especially due to mental problems, in the current pandemic environment in our country, and mobile phones are almost the only communication channels, it is necessary to increase mobile-based self-help intervention services; making it available to the public free of charge; developing new applications related to different psychological problems; It is thought that it is important to increase the effect sizes by using these developed applications together with other technological developments.