Abstract. Extreme events, such as natural or human-caused disasters, cause mental health stress in affected communities. While the severity of these outcomes varies based on socioeconomic standing, age group, and degree of exposure, disaster planners can mitigate potential stress-induced mental health outcomes by assessing the capacity and scalability of early, intermediate, and long-term treatment interventions by social workers and psychologists. However, local and state authorities are typically underfunded, understaffed, and have ongoing health and social service obligations that constrain mitigation and response activities. In this research, a resource assignment framework is developed as a coupled-state transition and linear optimization model that assists planners in optimally allocating constrained resources and satisfying mental health recovery priorities post-disaster. The resource assignment framework integrates the impact of a simulated disaster on mental health, mental health provider capacities, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) to identify vulnerable populations needing additional assistance post-disaster. In this study, we optimally distribute mental health clinicians to treat the affected population based upon rulesets that simulate decision-maker priorities, such as economic and social vulnerability criteria. Finally, the resource assignment framework maps the mental health recovery of the disaster-affected populations over time, providing agencies a means to prepare for and respond to future disasters given existing resource constraints. These capabilities hold the potential to support decision-makers in minimizing long-term mental health impacts of disasters on communities through improved preparation and response activities.

中文翻译：

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灾后心理健康资源分配的模拟优化框架

摘要。诸如自然或人为灾难之类的极端事件在受影响的社区中造成精神健康压力。虽然这些后果的严重程度会根据社会经济地位，年龄组和接触程度而有所不同，但是灾难规划人员可以通过评估早期，中期和长期治疗干预措施的能力和可扩展性，减轻潜在的压力诱发的心理健康后果工人和心理学家。但是，地方和州政府通常资金不足，人员不足，并且承担着持续的健康和社会服务义务，从而限制了缓解和响应活动。在这项研究中 开发了资源分配框架，作为耦合状态转换和线性优化模型，可帮助计划人员最佳地分配受约束的资源并满足灾后精神健康恢复的优先级。资源分配框架整合了模拟灾难对心理健康，心理健康提供者的能力以及疾病控制和预防中心（CDC）的社会脆弱性指数（SVI）的影响，以识别在灾后需要额外援助的脆弱人群。在这项研究中，我们根据模拟决策者优先级（例如经济和社会脆弱性标准）的规则集，优化分配精神卫生临床医生来治疗受影响的人群。最后，资源分配框架绘制了受灾人群随时间推移的心理健康恢复情况的图表，为机构提供了一种在现有资源有限的情况下为未来灾难做准备和应对的手段。这些功能有可能通过改进的准备和响应活动来支持决策者最大限度地减少灾难对社区的长期心理健康影响。