The Impact of COVID-19 on Psychological Problems in Turkey and Feasibility Study of the Book "Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide", Developed in Self-Help and More Intervention

The goal of the project; It is to conduct a feasibility study to examine the psychological problems of Turks and Syrian refugees living in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic and the factors affecting it, and to evaluate the feasibility of an intervention developed by the World Health Organization in reducing psychological problems. Findings from this research, as resource loss increases; showed that symptoms of anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress also increased. In addition, the relationship between resource loss and symptoms of depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress was found to be explained by self-efficacy and social support. As a result of the feasibility study, it was observed that the participants in the intervention group had lower depression, anxiety and PTSD scores in the posttest compared to those in the waiting group, but the reported downward trend was not significant. This research has shown that COVID-19 causes loss of resources in individuals and this loss of resources negatively affects the psychological symptoms of people. The feasibility study using the book "Doing What Matters in Times of Stress: An Illustrated Guide", which can be used to help individuals manage their psychological stress, reported positive results; The results of the research support the theories of the Conservation of Resources theory on the formation of psychological stress. The findings showed that there is a significant relationship between the resource losses experienced during the COVID-19 period and the psychological symptoms. In addition, it has been found that interventions created in a self-help format to cope with the stress experienced during the COVID-19 period also show positive results on the psychological symptoms of individuals. This finding indicates that a comprehensive study is needed to obtain meaningful results about the effectiveness of the intervention. The loss of resources experienced by individuals during the COVID-19 period, the psychological symptoms that develop due to this, the need for interventions appropriate to the importance of COVID-19, and the potential effects of these interventions are shown in this study.