Mental Health Support for Hospital Staff during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Characteristics of the Services and Feedback from the Providers.

Fiche publication


Date publication

juillet 2022

Journal

Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland)

Auteurs

Membres identifiés du Cancéropôle Est :
Pr BINQUET Christine, Pr LAURENT Alexandra, Dr MEUNIER-BEILLARD Nicolas


Tous les auteurs :
Loiseau M, Ecarnot F, Meunier-Beillard N, Laurent A, Fournier A, François-Purssell I, Binquet C, Quenot JP

Résumé

French authorities created mental health support services to accompany HCWs during the pandemic. We aimed to obtain feedback from staff providing these mental health support services within French hospitals to identify positive and negative features and avenues for improvement. A mixed-methods study was performed between 1 April and 30 June 2020. We contacted 77 centres to identify those providing mental health support services. We developed a questionnaire containing questions about the staff providing the service (quantitative part), with open questions to enable feedback from service providers (qualitative part). Of the 77 centres, 36 had mental health support services; 77.8% were created specifically for the epidemic. Services were staffed principally by psychologists, mainly used a telephone platform, and had a median opening time of 8 h/day. Thirty-seven professionals provided feedback, most aged 35-49 years. For 86.5%, it was their first time providing such support. Median self-reported comfort level was 8 (interquartiles 3-10), and 95% would do it again. Respondents reported (i) difficulties with work organisation, clinical situations, and lack of recognition and (ii) a desire for training. This study suggests that mental health support needs to be adapted to the needs of HCWs, both in terms of the content of the service and the timing of delivery.

Mots clés

COVID-19, health care workers, mental health support services

Référence

Healthcare (Basel). 2022 07 18;10(7):