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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Public Health
Sec. Public Mental Health
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1452872
This article is part of the Research Topic Environmental Risk Factors for Depression: Unveiling Pathways to Resilience and Public Mental Health Equity View all 6 articles

Evaluating the Three-Month Post-Intervention Impact of Supportive Text Message Program on Mental Health Outcomes during the 2023 Wildfires in Alberta and Nova Scotia, Canada

Provisionally accepted
Gloria Obuobi-Donkor Gloria Obuobi-Donkor 1Reham Shalaby Reham Shalaby 2Belinda Agyapong Belinda Agyapong 2Raquel da Luz Da Raquel da Luz Da 1Ejemai Eboreime Ejemai Eboreime 1Lori Wozney Lori Wozney 3Vincent I.O. Agyapong Vincent I.O. Agyapong 1,2*
  • 1 Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada
  • 2 Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
  • 3 Mental Health and Addictions Program, IWK Health, Halifax, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Individuals exposed to wildfires are at risk of developing adverse mental health conditions in the months following the event. Receiving supportive text interventions during and after a wildfire event can have a significant impact on reducing mental health conditions over time.The study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a supportive text message intervention service in reducing the severity and prevalence of psychological conditions three months following the 2023 wildfires in Alberta and Nova Scotia, two regions heavily affected by these natural disasters.In this longitudinal study, participants voluntarily subscribed to the Text4Hope-AB and Text4Hope-NS services, receiving supportive text interventions for three months. On enrolment and at three months post-enrolment, participants completed online surveys. The severity and prevalence of mental wellbeing, resilience, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress were measured using the World Health Organisation-Five Well-Being Index (WHO-5), Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Checklist for Civilians (PCL-C) respectively. Data analysis involved using McNemar's chi-square test and paired sample t-tests.A total of 150 subscribers partially or fully completed both the baseline and three-month assessments. The results show a statistically significant change in the mean scores on the WHO-5Wellbeing Index (+ 24.6%), PHQ-9 (-17.0%), GAD-7 scale (-17.6%), PCL-C (-6.0%), and BRS (+3.2%) from baseline to three months. Similarly, there was a reduction, although not statistically significant, in the prevalence of low resilience (55.1 vs. 53.4%), poor mental well-being (71.6 VS 48.3%), likely MDD (71.4 vs. 40.7%), likely GAD (42.1 vs. 33.3%), and likely PTSD (42.0 vs.The study's findings underscore the potential of the supportive text intervention program in effectively aiding individuals who have endured natural disasters such as wildfires. Providing supportive text messages during wildfire events is a promising strategy for mitigating mental health conditions over time.

    Keywords: wildfires, Mental Health, supportive text intervention, Alberta, Nova Scotia

    Received: 21 Jun 2024; Accepted: 03 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Obuobi-Donkor, Shalaby, Agyapong, Da, Eboreime, Wozney and Agyapong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Vincent I.O. Agyapong, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.