Mental Health Project Update | Coronavirus Visualization Team

The Mental Health Project, held in collaboration between the Coronavirus Visualization Team and the Coronavirus Visualization Community, is a newer initiative that seeks to explore the relationship between COVID-19 and mental health. Given that this topic is currently overlooked by major media outlets despite the clear rise in feelings of psychological distress worldwide, our work creating data visualizations and infographics is crucial. Our most recent developments are summarized below.

Update #1: Project Restructuring

After consultation with CVT leadership, it was decided that the Mental Health Project should be restructured for efficiency. Now, there are four sub-teams: Data, Analytics, Public Relations, and Infographics.

● The main goal of the Data team is to find datasets relevant to the pandemic’s impact on COVID-19, whether that be through searching for sources on the Internet, cold-contacting organizations like Mental Health America (MHA), or collecting data themselves (we currently have members conducting surveys in Canada and Bangladesh).

● The goal of the Analytics team is to create visualizations/statistical modelings of these datasets to determine correlations between variables.

● The Public Relations team seeks to convert these findings into standardized reports that briefly summarize the key takeaways and display the visuals with their citations.

● Lastly, the Infographics team utilizes these reports to design aesthetically-pleasing, clear infographics to alert the public of our findings. These will be posted on the CVT social media and hopefully in official mental health journals/publications (we are currently in the process of organizing partnerships).

Update #2: Current Data Visualizations and Infographics

● Our Data members have compiled datasets from organizations like the Centers for Disease Control, Google Trends, JAMA Network, the UK Data Service, and the University of Southern California’s Center for Economic and Social Research.

● Our Analytics team has produced over seven visualizations on topics ranging from the prevalence of anxiety in the general population to rates of depressive symptoms in healthcare workers.

● Our Infographics team has created two infographics, “Mental Health and COVID Screening Results” and “Social Media: Impact on Mental Health During COVID-19” to communicate core terms and findings to the public.

While many projects at CVC/CVT are oriented mainly around data visualization, the Mental Health Project takes this mission a step further by making the numbers more inviting to individuals through engaging infographics. We hope to continue calling attention to this pandemic’s detrimental effects on mental health through our work in the next few weeks!