Tell us! How is the coronavirus affecting our mental health?
- Topic
- Mental health
- Focus
- COVID-19 pandemic
- Method
- Advisory board, Co-creation, Crowdsourcing
- Duration
- May 2020 – December 2020
- Status
- completed
- Location
- Austria
- Funding
- OIS Center project
What is the project about?
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying measures to contain the coronavirus, it was impossible to predict the impact these would have on the mental health of Austrians. For this reason, the Ludwig Boltzmann Society launched the initiative “Have your say! How is COVID-19 affecting our mental health?” at short notice, with the aim of fostering a broad dialogue, raising awareness of the issue and generating new, evidence-based knowledge. The focus was on the mental health of people in Austria in relation to education & learning, career & work, and social isolation during the coronavirus crisis.
What is the goal of the project?
“Tell us! How is the coronavirus affecting our mental health?” was a wide-ranging initiative that involved the general public as well as experts and practitioners alike:
- Crowdsourcing
The survey of members of the public directly affected by the impact of the coronavirus crisis yielded new insights into the mental health of people in Austria. The crowdsourcing initiative was open for contributions between 4 May and 28 June 2020 in the areas of education & learning, work & career, and social isolation & loneliness. - Co-creation process
Based on contributions from over 800 affected individuals via crowdsourcing, new insights were gathered and subsequently used in a co-creation process, with the help of renowned scientists and practitioners, to define nine concrete measures and seven further relevant areas of research.
How are participants involved in the project?
As a first step, a crowdsourcing initiative was launched: everyone living in Austria was invited to submit their personal observations and experiences regarding the three questions
- “How is the coronavirus affecting our mental health in relation to education and school?”,
- “How is the coronavirus affecting our mental health in relation to careers and work?” and
- “How is the coronavirus affecting our mental health in relation to social isolation and loneliness?”
on the online platform “corona.lbg.ac.at” (page no longer active). Between 4 May and 6 July 2020, those affected submitted 805 contributions.
In a second step, the results of the crowdsourcing were further processed in digital co-creation workshops and several feedback loops involving 35 experts and practitioners from various disciplines. The aim was to develop new and concrete measures to strengthen and promote the mental health of the Austrian population, as well as to identify new research questions. Three digital co-creation workshops were held in June and July 2020 on the key themes of the crowdsourcing initiative. The final outcome was the development of nine measures and seven research priorities.
What are the results of the project?
- Project documentation (PDF in German)
- Report on co-creation workshop on education and learning (PDF in German)
- Report on co-creation workshop on career and work (PDF in German)
- Report on co-creation workshop on social isolation and loneliness (PDF in German)
Project lead
Ludwig Boltzmann Gesellschaft
