Original title: Prioritizing the Mental Health and Well-Being of Healthcare Workers: An Urgent Global Public Health Priority
Crisis work can raise healthcare workers' risk of stress, burnoutA state of exhaustion and distress related to ongoing work demands., depression, trauma, and moral injuryPsychological distress linked to actions or events that conflict with a person's deeply held moral beliefs.. Public health emergencies, including COVID-19, can make these problems worse. The article reviews ways to help, from self-care to evidence-based support and changes made by employers and health systems. It also calls for policies that protect workers over the long term.
Imagine running a busy kitchen during a sudden rush. The work piles up, people have to make hard choices, and breaks become harder to take. In this paper, the kitchen workers stand for healthcare staff, the rush stands for a public health emergency, and the ways to share the load and protect breaks stand for the support and system changes the article calls for.
When healthcare workers' mental health suffers, the people responding to emergencies need support too. The article argues that self-care alone is not enough: health systems and leaders should use evidence-based support and make lasting changes to protect workers.
The abstract describes an evidence-based overview and policy recommendations, but does not report specific intervention results or show which approaches work best. It also does not give details about the evidence reviewed or quantify the effects of the pandemic.
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Prioritizing the Mental Health and Well-Being of Healthcare Workers: An Urgent Global Public Health Priority — Lene E. Søvold, John A. Naslund, Antonis A. Kousoulis et al. — Frontiers in Public Health — doi:10.3389/fpubh.2021.679397
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.