Efforts of a Psychiatric Liaison Team in a ward with patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019

Abstract

More than 2 years has passed since the extensive spread of coronavirus disease 2019 , and several waves of the infection have come and gone. In particular, the fifth wave in Japan saw a rapid increase in the number of patients with COVID-19 nationwide (Figure 1) (1), which also led to an increase in patients with severe COVID-19 (hereinafter referred to as severely ill patients) hospitalized at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine (NCGM) as well as mortality (Figure 2). This led to a mounting physiological and psychological burden, causing anxiety for the staff treating and caring for those patients. Numerous studies in Japan and abroad have reported the mental health problems that healthcare professionals have faced during the COVID-19 pandemic (2-5). Moreover, the NCGM has been forced to restrict visits to inpatients since March 2020 for infection control purposes, further increasing the burden on the patients themselves and the medical staff that care for them.This report discusses the Psychiatric Liaison Team's efforts in a ward for severely ill patients in which patients with severe COVID-19 were being treated and cared for during the fifth wave of the pandemic.The Psychiatric Liaison Team is a team whose multidisciplinary staff, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and clinical psychologist, collaborate with (P1)