With respect to the rising trend in COVID-19 mental breakdowns and needing for pay attention to the psychological dimensions of that, identifying comprehensive and practical model for psychological empowerment in COVID-19 patients is high importance. Hence, the current study aimed to explore the psychological empowerment model in COVID-19 mental breakdown management from health care providers and patients’ viewpoint. The grounded theory approach was applied in this qualitative study. Semi-structured interviews and observation of participants as the main methods for data collection was used. 10 members of the health care providers had a greater experience in treating COVID-19 patients and 6 of these patients participated with purposive and theoretical sampling methods. Data analysis was performed concurrently with data gathering based on Corbin and Strauss’s proposed method. Data validity was confirmed via Lincoln and Gubba’s approach. Developed psychological empowerment model in mental breakdown management during COVID-19 (Picutre1) consist of four constructs inclusive “Managing domino effect”, “Support”, “Acceptance”, and “Change”. Among them “Managing domino effect” as the main concept or core category consisted of four subthemes of slow down beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors respectively. The theme of “Support” was obtained from the subcategories of empathy and advocate. The three sub themes of awareness, motivation and adherence also created the “Acceptance” theme. The last theme was “change” which composed of beliefs and life style modification subthemes. Developed model in this study as an applicable caring model can be proposed for mental breakdown management during COVID-19 crisis. Although its use in clinical settings requires further studies on testing the above model on patients with COVID-19.
