Data Monitoring and Triage Practices during covid-19: shaping the future of Public Mental Health

Most countries around the world struggled to approach the pandemic as a biopsychosocial phenomenon impacting all aspects of life, whereby the biomedical discourse often dominated over the psychosocial one. However, the experience of COVID-19 and especially the chronic nature of the pandemic has since then made clear that the inclusion of public mental health considerations is necessary. Accurate monitoring and effective triage within a stepped care approach - ranging from general prevention to expert counselling - are crucial premises in order for a society to not only survive the challenges imposed by the current pandemic, but also for it to become resilient and prepared for when another crises of this amplitude strikes.

Different countries have approached dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on public mental health in their own way. Several monitoring and triage initiatives have been launched. Research data about the impact of COVID-19 on public mental health has been gathered in data repositories. The lessons learned from research and experiences on the field have influenced the public discourses about public mental health. The aim of the current Research Topic is to bring together state of the art research about monitoring and triage practices and the way in which the pandemic has acted as a change agent regarding the definition and the importance of public mental health within society.

In this Research Topic, we welcome contributions inquiring on the implementation of public mental health monitoring and triage practices. In addition, we encourage data repository initiatives to come forward and focus on their lessons learned. Likewise, we are eager to include works that emphasize pieces of evidence about how the pandemic context may act as a change agent in light of the definition and importance of public mental health within society.

The current Research Topic aims to collect original, uni- and multidisciplinary contributions (research articles, reviews, methods, or protocols) from fields such as but not limited to health, clinical, and social-community psychology or sociology, nursing and medicine.