In this activity, participants will explore the pandemic’s impacts on individuals’ mental health, including the increasing risks for, and prevalence of, stress, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, especially for special populations such as front-line personnel (i.e., health care professionals (HCPs), teachers and funeral directors), children and the millennial and geriatric populations. In addition, participants will review the multifaceted effects of the pandemic on the behavioral health care delivery system, specifically regarding access to care, delivery of services and digital health utilization. The implications for current and future utilization of delivery modalities, such as telehealth, behavioral health coaching and other mental health care management strategies will be discussed, taking into consideration the behavioral health care concerns that have emerged during this transitional time in response to the transforming health care landscape and the population’s evolving mental health care needs. 

Participants in this activity will learn about the system framework theory of decision-making and how System I- and System II-type cognitive processes can best be utilized in the health care setting. The role of heuristics (mental “shortcuts” and rules-of-thumb) will be examined, as well as the types of cognitive biases (inherent and often unconscious systematic errors in thinking) that most commonly result in negative health outcomes. Debiasing strategies to address these negative influences on rational and optimal decision-making that are applicable to the self and the health care team will be explored. 

This activity focuses on the current state of COVID-19 vaccine development. It discusses which vaccine types are being developed and where they are in the clinical trial process. Additionally, this activity identifies what it means for a health system to participate in a vaccine study and how health care professionals can make informed decisions about vaccines with limited available data.

This activity will highlight the top PD symptoms and the use of medication as a key component of symptom management, review the typical progression of PD, the medications recommended during this progression and the adverse effects that may result from these medications. Recent advances and the potential future applications in PD medication management will also be discussed.