COVID-19 Rehab Fright Management

Abstract

Being diagnosed as positive for SARS-2 CoV RNA on PCR generates anxiety and stress as well as depression due to the prospects of being isolated. With genetically varied forms of virus on the rise the widely adopted manner to protect oneself is social distancing. This is frightening for rehabilitation professionals who at times are exposed at close quarters to the patients as rehabilitation is essential. Data in this backdrop is lacking, as this is a recent and ongoing pandemic. As such the current study was conducted with an attempt to review and highlight the causes of fright among rehabilitation professionals and possible management options in the wake of current pandemic of COVID-19 in the perspective of Pakistan. For this purpose literature was searched from major electronic databases including PubMed, Google, Google Scholar and Web-of-science, with keywords “Covid-19, mental health, telehealth, telemedicine, tele-rehabilitation and combination of words”. Eighty English, full text articles were studied out of which 36 were used for the literature review. With this literature review we conclude that COVID-19 has resulted in fear of contracting and transmitting this disease among health professionals and can be reduced and managed by provision of tele-rehabilitation and telehealth facilities. Patients emerging from prolonged mechanical ventilations require extensive rehabilitation to restore routine body functions. The role of the otolaryngologist and speech language pathologist (SLP) is formal and direct to ensure appropriate and timely long term intervention and rehabilitation to ensure that these individuals re-enter mainstream activities.
 doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.1.3187
 How to cite this:Mumtaz N, Saqulain G, Mumtaz N. COVID-19 Rehab Fright Management. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(1):277-282. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.1.3187
 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Speech-Language Pathology Management for Adults with COVID-19 in the Acute Hospital Setting: What Do We Know?

“…Notably, pandemic planning was the focus of the recommendations paper by Wong [40], but this was based on a business model rather than empirical evidence. Across all types of publications, the most commonly covered topics surrounding workforce planning included compliance with relevant national, provincial/state/territorial, and/or hospital guidelines for infection prevention and control (recommendation 1.12; [5,23,31,54,60,63]); recognition that staff have an increased and/or varied workload with a heightened risk of anxiety both at work and at home (recommendation 1.17; [32,34,40,58]); and considerations around debriefing and psychological support for staff (recommendation 1.18; [32,34,40,58]). Of note, the article by Mumtaz and colleagues [34] focused on the fears of healthcare workers associated with COVID-19 contraction.…”

Satisfaction and Competence With Telepractice Services in Pakistan Amid COVID-19 Pandemic: The Speech-Language Pathologists’ Perspective

“…nfectious diseases are on the rise, and with the recent COVID-19 pandemic, even developing countries like Pakistan, with a weak and struggling health care system, have been forced to opt for online learning, teaching, and providing services [1]. Fears of picking and spreading disease have made telepractice a therapeutic window for the present and future [2]. American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA) has defined telepractice as "the implication of telecommunication technology to pass on professional services far away by connecting clinician to client, or clinician to clinician for assessment, referrals, treatment or discourse" [3].…”

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