COVID-19 Pandemic and the Mental Health of Health Care Workers: Awareness to Action

• Main Authors: Pallavi Rajhans, Koushik Sinha Deb, Rakesh Kumar Chadda
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Pvt. Ltd. 2020-07-01
• Series: Annals of the National Academy of Medical Sciences (India)
• Subjects: mental health; covid-19; health care worker; depression; stress; management
• Online Access: http://www.thieme-connect.de/DOI/DOI?10.1055/s-0040-1715285

The enormity of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has overwhelmed most health services and has placed health care service providers under unprecedented stress. The rapidity of spread, uncertain clinical course, and unavailability of effective treatment make clinical decisions cognitively demanding. Extended work hours inside uncomfortable protective gears, improper hydration, with conflictual health systems and patients at work; and social stigma and isolation after it ends, have created an unending downward spiral of mental health in care providers. Care providers are at increased risk of developing mental health problems in form of burnout, stress reactions, anxiety, depression, and post trauma stress. Concerted strategies for managing the mental health of care providers are urgently needed at individual and systems level. A plethora of strategies, developed from previous experience of crisis management, need to be made available to care providers through accessible mediums of delivery. This paper explores the mental health problems encountered by health care personnel and examines various strategies which need to be implemented to manage them.