The Melissa Institute’s COVID-19 Pandemic Resources

In the aftermath of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, The Melissa Institute has undertaken several initiatives that include information papers and interviews addressing the following four areas:

1. Ways to bolster resilience in children families, and communities;
2. Guidelines for parents and educators on ways to help children and youth to cope with their concerns and lifestyle changes;
3. Ways to prevent interpersonal violence in the form of partner abuse, intrapersonal violence in the form of suicide, and police violence by means of bystander interventions;
4. Potpourri of related tools on more ways to move toward a period of peace and harmony and additional ways to access additional help.

Please visit The Melissa Institute Resource Information under the heading RESILIENCE RESOURCES where you can find additional information from multiple experts in the area of trauma and resilience.

Please share these resources with others. Thank you for visiting The Melissa Institute website.

Ways to bolster resilience

This section provides information on how engaging in resilience- engendering behaviors with children and adults can change both the brain and interpersonal behavior. For example, CLICK on item 6 on ways to provide your brain with a “shot of dopamine,” by means of using humor.

1. Dr. Meichenbaum’s interview on ways to bolster resilience
2. Roadmap for resilience by Dr. Don Meichenbaum
3. Fact sheet on resilience
4. Ways to bolster resilience using humor, song, and prose
5. Resilience-enhancing activity book for children and families
6. Resilience training that can change the brain
7. Tools for resilience: The 6 C’s for peace and harmony
8. Coping during uncertain times
9. Ways to Bolster Resilience in Youth and Their Families in the Age of COVID 19 Zoom Presentation (The password is COVID19)
10. Coping with Grief in the Midst of a Pandemic by Donald Meichenabum, Ph.D.

1. Tips for parents/caregivers as they support teaching their children at home during covid-19 (En Español)
2. Balanced literacy diet
3. Parenting resources for parents and professionals
4. Managing parenting challenges of social distancing, confinement, and isolation
5. Advice for frazzled parents on home instruction: “This is temporary”
6. Talking to kids about coronavirus
7. How to talk to children about traumatic events
8. Helping your child cope in a crisis with Frank Zenere
9. Helping your teen with study stress during COVID-19
10. Loneliness and COVID-19
11. A kid’s guide to the coronavirus, by Rebecca Grove & Julia Burch
12. Revising goals and getting it done while adhering to social distancing rules by The University of Virginia’s Program for Anxiety, Cognition, and Treatment Lab
13. Helping Children Regulate and Cope with Frustration presented by Elise Suna, LMFT

Preventing inter-personal and intra-personal violence in the period of the pandemic

This section provides critical information on ways to assess and prevent violence towards others in the form of partner abuse, violence toward oneself in the form of suicide using telehealth interventions, and police violence in the form of Bystander Interventions.

1. The other side of domestic violence: helping survivors by working with their abusive partners
2. The impact of COVID-19 in Domestic Violence occurrence and victim services in Miami-Dade County
3. Advancing Fairness & Justice During the COVID-19 Pandemic
4. Interventions for Preventing Violence Towards Others and Towards Oneself in the Aftermath of the Pandemic
5. A double pandemic: Domestic Violence in the age of COVID-19 (A global perspective) by C. Bettinger-Lopez and A. Bro
6. From Global Coordination to Local Strategies A Practical Approach to Prevent, Address and Document Domestic Violence under COVID-19
7. The COVID-19 Pandemic and Treating Suicidal Risk: The telepsychotherapy use of CAMS by D. A. Jobes, J. A. Crumlish, & A. Evan, A.
8. Suicide Assessment for Health Care Providers
9. The psychological impact of quarantine and how to reduce it: rapid review of the evidence
10. Coronavirus disease 2019 and firearms in the United States: Will an epidemic of suicide follow?
11. The health 202: Texts to federal government mental health hotline up roughly 1,000 percent
12. Trauma-Informed Telehealth Considerations for Youth with Suicidal and Self-Harm Ideation and Behaviors by National Child and Traumatic Stress Network
13. Suicide, Self-Harm, and LGBTQ Youth: Tips for Therapists by National Child and Traumatic Stress Network
14. Miami goes seven weeks without a homicide for the first time since 1957
15. Understanding the Roots of Violence and Promoting Reconciliation, Healing, and Positive Bystandership
16. Understanding the Roots of Violence: Q&A session with Dr. Ervin Staub
17. Preventing Violence and Promoting Active Bystandership and Peace by E. Staub
18. Healing, reconciliation, forgiving and the prevention of violence after genocide or mass killing: An intervention and its experimental evaluation in Rwanda by E. Staub, L.A. Perlman, A. Gubin, & A. Hagengimana
19. Preventing police misconduct by E. Staub
20. Preventing Gun Shootings and Homicides During the COVID-19 Pandemic
21. Gun violence is surging in cities, and hitting communities of color hardest
22. Pandemic, Social Unrest, and Crime in U.S. Cities

Information as a Tool for Peace & Harmony

This section provides an array of information on ways to engage in safety behaviors and ways to access additional supportive resources.

1. Explaining COVID-19
2. Help prevent the spread
3. How to Engage and Motivate People to Wear Masks and Maintain Social Distance
4. What Do You Tell Someone Who Still Won’t Stay Home?
5. A user’s guide to facemasks
6. Understanding antibodies
7. FDA approves home test kit
8. Government guidelines to opening up America again
9. Resources and information on COVID-19 response

Need More Help?

For additional information about The Melissa Institute, media inquiries, training requests, and other matters write us at info@melissainstitute.org

1. Crisis and support: Hotline numbers
2. Learn more about our story