Supporting the Mental Health of Health Workers during COVID-19

by Ngoc Nguyen and Hien Tran, Public and Community Engagement Unit, Oxford University Clinical Research Unit

“Working in the department, before screening, I have to screen the patients, the responsibility and the greater pressure and ensure the safety of all medical staff and patients. This line of work is also scary.”   Acknowledging the impacts of the challenging context of COVID-19 for health workers, this online workshop explored some of the experiences of health care workers in Vietnam and discussed strategies to support their mental health and wellbeing. 

24th September 2020 • comment

COVID-19 in Africa: care and protection for frontline healthcare workers

by Matthew F. Chersich , Glenda Gray, Lee Fairlie, Quentin Eichbaum, Susannah Mayhew, Brian Allwood, Rene English, Fiona Scorgie, Stanley Luchters, Greg Simpson, Marjan Mosalman Haghighi, Minh Duc Pham and Helen Rees

  Sustaining safe and quality care in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic hinges on the health and mental wellbeing of frontline healthcare workers. Medical staff face exhaustion, difficult triage decisions, separation from families, stigma and the pain of losing patients and colleagues, in addition to their own risks of infection.  In this literature review, the authors describe the infection risks and mental health challenges that healthcare workers face in the COVID-19 pandemic and propose interventions to counter these in Africa. Lessons from previous disease-control efforts on the continent are highlighted and draw on experiences with SARS-CoV-2 in other parts of the world.   

24th September 2020 • comment

Mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal probability sample survey of the UK population

by Matthias Pierce, Holly Hope, Tamsin Ford, Stephani Hatch, Matthew Hotopf, Ann John, Evangelos Kontopantelis, Roger Webb, Simon Wessely, Sally McManus*, Kathryn M Abel*
24th September 2020 • comment

Factors Associated With Mental Health Outcomes Among Health Care Workers Exposed to Coronavirus Disease 2019

by Jianbo Lai, MSc, Simeng Ma, MSc, Ying Wang, MSc, Zhongxiang Cai, MD, Jianbo Hu, MSc, Ning Wei, MD, Jiang Wu, MD, Hui Du, MD, Tingting Chen, MD, Ruiting Li, MD, Huawei Tan, MD, Lijun Kang, MSc, Lihua Yao, MD, Manli Huang, MD, Huafen Wang, BD, Gaohua Wang, MD, Zhongchun Liu, MD, Shaohua Hu, MD
22nd May 2020 • comment

Managing mental health challenges faced by healthcare workers during covid-19 pandemic

by Neil Greenberg (professor of defence mental health), Mary Docherty (consultant liaison psychiatrist), Sam Gnanapragasam (NIHR academic clinical fellow in psychiatry), Simon Wessely (regius professor of psychiatry)
22nd May 2020 • comment