C E N TE R FOR RURAL HE A LTH
A BRIDGE T O
SELF CARE Behavioral Health Bridge helps people deal with the challenges of COVID-19.
Over the past year, the world has changed dramatically.
The Behavioral Health Bridge launched to the public in
Physical concerns notwithstanding, how have people been
September 2020.
coping with the mental stresses brought on by the pandemic? What are they worried about?
“Dr. Wonderlich and I had a conversation about what was
A collection of North Dakota doctors, mental health experts,
going on with COVID-19 and people’s stresses,” said McLean.
and others have come together to help people deal with the
“I had been on a number of calls with people across the
emotional challenges COVID-19 has presented. One solution
country. The city of New York was being inundated [with
they’ve ushered into the world is what they call the Behavioral
COVID], and people were talking about the stressors with
Health Bridge.
health professionals. There were so many pieces of information
The Behavioral Health Bridge is a user-friendly website aimed at helping people experiencing common mental health conditions related to COVID-19 and promoting behavioral health treatment to address the current needs of those in the community. The idea was developed in March 2020, during the early days of the pandemic. Dr. Andrew McLean, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at the University of North Dakota (UND) School of Medicine & Health Sciences (SMHS), and Dr. Stephen Wonderlich, vice president of research at Sanford Health in Fargo and former associate chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science at SMHS, had a phone conversation one Sunday afternoon. The colleagues and friends worried about the sheer volume and validity of the information around mental health that was suddenly bombarding people. A partnership with UND and Sanford Health began, and in six months a team was put together and a website was developed. 12
Increased stressors
North Dakota Medicine Spring 2021
coming about what could be helpful, and it was too much noise. So we talked about what would be the ‘best bang for the buck’ and could help in assisting the public and providers, and we landed on an idea of a web platform that was informational, educational, and based on evidence.” The two reached out to Thomasine Heitkamp, UND Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor of Nursing, and Dr. Shawnda Schroeder, associate director for research and evaluation for the UND SMHS Center for Rural Health. Together, they assembled a team of 10 individuals with experience in psychiatry, biobehavioral research, rural health, social work, behavioral health workforce development, and behavioral health stigma. The team recognized a growing need in rural communities with little or no access to behavioral healthcare services. “When people are stressed,” explained McLean, “they don’t want to have to sort through a lot of information. They need specific, useful things they can do immediately.”
