Dr. Keenan A. Ramsey, a New York City native residing in Amsterdam, is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Psychology, Health and Technology at the University of Twente. Her doctoral research focused healthy ageing for which she obtained her PhD from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 2021. Currently, Keenan works at the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on wellbeing as a part of the Be-Prepared consortium. As her research focus pertains to wellbeing, a multidimensional concept, she takes a dynamic approach to understanding the various factors that can affect wellbeing and the levels on which they may operate. Within her research she takes a mixed-methods approach to disentangle the psychosocial impacts of the pandemic seeking to inform future preparedness strategies to mitigate negative consequences to wellbeing in crisis situations. Her work is underpinned by her commitment to addressing health disparities and focusing on vulnerable populations. 

On 22/03, she participate in the breakoutsession on COVID-19. The subject of her presentation  was Be-Prepared: Insights from a Dutch consortium taking a behavioral science to address the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Be-Prepared consortium is a collaboration of researchers from the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), the University of Twente, the University of Utrecht, Radboud University Medical Centre, and the University of Amsterdam. Be-Prepared aims to inform preparedness strategies for future crises and provides in-depth analyses of mixed-method longitudinal cohort data collected in the Netherlands throughout 2.5 years of the COVID-19 pandemic (21 rounds of data collection, March 2020-September 2022). Taking a behavioral sciences approach, we focus on the longitudinal patterns of wellbeing, political support, behavior, and media-use. Within the wellbeing theme, mental health was measured by constructs such as the self-reporting of mental health symptoms, affective response, and coping; however, considering mental health in the context of the larger wellbeing framework, social and physical wellbeing were additionally covered to facilitate a more dynamic understanding given the direct effects of the pandemic on lifestyle such as reduced mobility and social contact. To date many studies have identified population-level effects on mental health at the sub-clinical level that were relatively short-lived and most consequential for particular subgroups. While this may reflect a remarkable and large-scale example of human resilience and reiterate the need to protect well-known vulnerable groups, there may be more to disentangle given the complexity and heterogeneity in ways people psychologically respond to crises. Therefore, the Be-Prepared consortium reflects a commitment of resources towards an in-depth look into psychosocial experiences of the pandemic to highlight nuances and uncover patterns both between- and within-persons that may have been overlooked. This will be done using various decomposition methods primarily employing techniques that identify distinct trajectories of mental health over time and characterizing the subgroups of individuals within them. Additionally, we will delve into qualitative data that may contextualize or reinforce quantitative findings by providing valuable insight on people’s lived experience through their own words. The Be-Prepared consortium represents a national investment in mental health that is continuing to leverage COVID-19 research to deepen the knowledge base that will be critical for informing future crisis-response strategies and required for the Netherlands to be-prepared.

  • ​You can download the slides below.

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