Increasing Public Health
Public education about COVID-19 and its impact on mental health is critical in raising public awareness and drawing attention to existing issues. Gruber et al. (2021) note that a lack of education in this area is often the cause of mental health issues. Patients and healthcare providers in a pandemic often experience stress, anxiety, and depression, resulting from a lack of community awareness of the disease and poor public health. Therefore, there is a need to develop educational programs to inform people about mental disorders associated with COVID-19 and prevent them. However, this option has some challenges. Public health often depends on people’s socio-cultural characteristics, so programs should reach the widest possible audience with their cultural and linguistic characteristics (Gruber et al., 2021). However, this requires additional funding and can be time-consuming.
Training for Healthcare Providers
Working during the COVID-19 pandemic is taking a toll on healthcare providers under increased stress. Protecting the mental health of healthcare workers and preventing burnout and other serious mental disorders is a major concerns for policymakers (Chirico et al., 2021). Health professionals need additional education to improve their ability to recognize threats to their mental health and self-care. Promoting self-care and coping techniques for healthcare providers will help reduce mental health issues and reduce the need for funding for additional services.
Organization of Services
Another option is the organization and implementation of services to maintain the mental health of medical workers. These services may include group or individual consultations with a psychologist (Janeway, 2020). Establishing such services in hospitals and making them available to all healthcare professionals will increase the ability of healthcare staff to cope with stress and anxiety. Moreover, group consultations promote interaction between healthcare professionals, which is an effective way to cope with mental health issues (Janeway, 2020). Moreover, healthcare workers who have already been diagnosed with mental disorders caused by working conditions should receive the necessary treatment and rehabilitation. However, the disadvantage of this option is the need to change working conditions and the need for funding.
Changing of Working Conditions
Another way to improve the psychological state of healthcare providers is to change the working conditions of staff. Braquehais et al. (2020) talk about the need for hospitals to provide workers “with resting places and giving them adequate time to take a break and sleep” (p. 612). In the context of a pandemic, many health workers are forced to work on an irregular schedule with much overtime. That reduces opportunities for healthy sleep and nutrition and increases caffeine intake, increasing stress and anxiety. To regulate the work schedule, an increase in the number of hospital staff is necessary (Braquehais et al., 2020). However, there is a problem with the lack of qualified employees.
Financing
All proposed options require additional funding from both healthcare institutions and the government. However, one of the main challenges for funding is the lack of evidence base for advocacy the need for intervention (Knapp & Wong, 2020). Hence, there is a need to invest in mental health research during COVID-19. The availability of research confirming the need for interventions to regulate the mental health of health workers will create the necessary conditions for additional funding. Finding funding sources is another problem due to the limited financial resources of medical institutions. Moreover, government initiatives and programs may not always fully cover the necessary costs in the current economy (Knapp & Wong, 2020). Therefore, it is necessary to search for alternative sources of funding.
References
Braquehais, M. D., Vargas-Cáceres, S., Gómez-Durán, E., Nieva, G., Valero, S., Casas, M., & Bruguera, E. (2020). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of healthcare professionals. QJM: An International Journal of Medicine, 113(9), 613–617. Web.
Chirico, F., Nucera, G., & Magnavita, N. (2021). Protecting the mental health of healthcare workers during the COVID-19 emergency. BJPsych International, 18(1). Web.
Gruber, J., Prinstein, M. J., Clark, L. A., Rottenberg, J., Abramowitz, J. S., Albano, A. M., Aldao, A., Borelli, J. L., Chung, T., Davila, J., Forbes, E. E., Gee, D. G., Hall, G. C. N., Hallion, L. S., Hinshaw, S. P., Hofmann, S. G., Hollon, S. D., Joormann, J., Kazdin, A. E., Klein, D. N., & Weinstock, L. M. (2021). Mental health and clinical psychological science in the time of COVID-19: Challenges, opportunities, and a call to action. The American psychologist, 76(3), 409–426. Web.
Janeway, D. (2020). The role of psychiatry in treating burnout among nurses during the Covid-19 pandemic. Journal of radiology nursing, 39(3), 176-178. Web.
Knapp, M., & Wong, G. (2020). Economics and mental health: the current scenario. World Psychiatry, 19(1), 3-14. Web.