Background Nursing homes for older adults have been disproportionately affected by the Covid‐19 pandemic with increased mortality of residents and staff distress. Objective To quantify the mental health of nursing home staff during the Covid‐19 pandemic in the Republic of Ireland. Design/Methods Cross‐sectional anonymous study of Republic of Ireland nursing home staff ( n = 390) during the third wave of the Covid‐19 pandemic. Online survey collecting demographic information, Covid‐19 exposure history and mental health measures. Results There were significant differences between nurses, healthcare assistants (HCA) and non‐clinical staff history in age, ethnicity, years' experience, history of Covid‐19 infection and contact with Covid‐19 positive acquaintances. Moderate–severe post‐traumatic stress disorder symptoms were found in 45.1% (95% confidence interval [CI] 40.2%–50.1%) of all staff. A World Health Organisation‐5 (WHO‐5) wellbeing index score ≤32, indicating low mood, was reported by 38.7% (95% CI, 33.9%–43.5%) of staff; significantly more nurses reported low mood. Suicidal ideation and suicide planning were reported, respectively, by 13.8% (95% CI, 10.4%–17.3%) and 9.2% (95% CI, 6.4%–12.1%) of participants with no between‐group differences. HCAs reported a significantly higher degree of moral injury than non‐clinical staff. Nurses were more likely to use approach coping styles than non‐clinical staff. Work ability was insufficient in 24.6% (95% CI 20.3%–28.9%) of staff. Conclusion Nursing home staff report high levels of post‐traumatic stress, mood disturbance and moral injury during the Covid‐19 pandemic. Differences in degree of moral injury, wellbeing and coping styles were found between staff groups, which need to be incorporated into planning supports for this neglected workforce.

Objectives We investigated the predictive value of subset scales and full versions of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD) for therapeutic outcomes in ECT. Methods This secondary analysis of patients with major depression (N = 136; 63% female; age = 56.7 [SD = 14.8]) from the EFFECT-Dep trial (NCT01907217) examined the predictive value of Evans-6, Toronto-7, Gibbons-8 and Maier-Philip 6 HAMD subset scales and three ‘full’ versions (HAMD-17, HAMD-21 and HAMD-24) on therapeutic outcomes. We also examined early improvement on subset scales and full versions as predictors of response and remission and explored predictive abilities of individual HAMD-24 items. Results The subset scales and full scales lacked sufficient predictive ability for response and remission. Receiver operating characteristic curves identified a lack of discriminative capacity of HAMD subset scales and full versions at baseline to predict response and remission. Only the Maier-Philip-6 was significantly associated with percentage reduction in HAMD-24 scores from baseline to end of ECT course. Early improvement on most of the subset scales and full versions was a sensitive and specific predictor of response and remission. Four of the HAMD-24 items were significantly associated with response and one with remission. Conclusions Limited utility of the HAMD subset scales and full versions in this context highlight a need for more tailored depression rating scales for ECT.