Brief Internet Psychoeducational Intervention (BIPI) Goals
Under this project, we are developing and plan to evaluate a Brief Internet Psychoeducational Intervention (BIPI). The goal is to produce a safe, accessible, and effective service to reduce risk for mental health problems after a disaster. An original version of BIPI was developed under a grant funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. We examined the usefulness of BIPI in an initial study of over 300 adults who lived in the New York City area at the time of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
Most of these adults found the Website user friendly, very useful to them, and said that they would recommend it to a friend. As we continue to make improvements to BIPI by adding more content as well as better graphical, video, and interactive features, we hope that it will develop into a resource that is helpful to disaster victims by giving them education that assists in their recovery.
BIPI provides education on a variety of emotional and behavioral issues that are common in disaster-affected communities. This includes anxiety reactions, depressed mood, and increased use of alcohol and substances.
Education Based on Website User's Responses
Each section of BIPI provides education based on the responses that Website users give to a series of screening questions. After BIPI has been fully developed, we will test its usefulness with a large sample of disaster victims.
Specifically, we will examine whether disaster victims who use BIPI recover more quickly with regard to their emotional and behavioral symptoms than disaster victims who do not use BIPI. If BIPI is helpful in the recovery process, we hope ultimately to make it more available and easily accessible after future disasters.