Experiences of mental health professionals supporting front-line health and social care workers during COVID-19: qualitative study

Billings, Jo; Biggs, Camilla; Ching, Brian Chi Fung; Gkofa, Vasiliki; Singleton, David; Bloomfield, Michael; Greene, Talya

doi:10.1192/bjo.2021.29

Cited by 60 publications

(122 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Mental health practitioners are likely to have to more assertively engage health and social care staff to make them more aware of services available and overcome stigma in attending. Research with mental health professionals who were surged to provide psychological support for frontline health and social care workers during the pandemic [ 29 ] showed that much of the mental health care workforce had received no prior training in the needs of health and social care staff and there has been little research into what psychological interventions are most effective in supporting them. This highlights the need for further training and CPD for mental health care providers, as well as the need to develop an evidence base of effective psychological interventions specifically tailored to the unique needs of the health and social care workforce.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What support do frontline workers want? A qualitative study of health and social care workers’ experiences and views of psychosocial support during the COVID-19 pandemic

et al. 2021

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Background The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a significant burden on the mental health and wellbeing of frontline health and social care workers. The need to support frontline staff has been recognised. However, there is to date little research specifically on how best to support the mental health needs of frontline workers, and none on their own experiences and views about what might be most helpful. Aims We set out to redress this research gap by qualitatively exploring UK frontline health and social care workers’ own experiences and views of psychosocial support during the pandemic. Method Frontline health and social care workers were recruited purposively through social media and by snowball sampling via healthcare colleagues. Workers who volunteered to take part in the study were interviewed remotely following a semi-structured interview guide. Transcripts of the interviews were analysed by the research team following the principles of Reflexive Thematic Analysis. Results We conducted 25 interviews with frontline workers from a variety of professional groups working in health and social care settings across the UK. Themes derived from our analysis showed that workers’ experiences and views about psychosocial support were complex. Peer support was many workers’ first line of support but could also be experienced as a burden. Workers were ambivalent about support shown by organisations, media and the public. Whilst workers valued psychological support services, there were many disparities in provision and barriers to access. Conclusions The results of this study show that frontline health and social care workers are likely to need a flexible system of support including peer, organisational and professional support. More research is needed to fully unpack the structural, systemic and individual barriers to accessing psychosocial support. Greater collaboration, consultation and co-production of support services and their evaluation is warranted.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

What support do frontline workers want? A qualitative study of health and social care workers’ experiences and views of psychosocial support during the COVID-19 pandemic

et al. 2021

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“…Moral distress is a prominent phenomenon in healthcare professions [5][6][7][8][9] that has been studied across different aspects of healthcare provision, especially in nursing [5,6,8]. While there is not a unified definition of who constitutes a healthcare worker (HCW) across studies measuring MD and/or MI, other groups that have been studied in this context include physicians [10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21], mental health workers (e.g., psychologists and psychotherapists) [3,19,20,22,23], and chaplains [15]. In general, HCWs have been conceptualized as individuals who actively engage in the protection and the improvement of the health of society [24].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Scoping Review of Moral Stressors, Moral Distress and Moral Injury in Healthcare Workers during COVID-19

Riedel

Kreh

Kulcar

et al. 2022

IJERPH

152

134

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Ethical dilemmas for healthcare workers (HCWs) during pandemics highlight the centrality of moral stressors and moral distress (MD) as well as potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs) and moral injury (MI). These constructs offer a novel approach to understanding workplace stressors in healthcare settings, especially in the demanding times of COVID-19, but they so far lack clear identification of causes and consequences. A scoping review of moral stressors, moral distress, PMIEs, and MI of healthcare workers during COVID-19 was conducted using the databases Web of Science Core Collection and PsycINFO based on articles published up to October 2021. Studies were selected based on the following inclusion criteria: (1) the measurement of either moral stress, MD, PMIEs, or MI among HCWs; (2) original research using qualitative or quantitative methods; and (3) the availability of the peer-reviewed original article in English or German. The initial search revealed n = 149,394 studies from Web of Science and n = 34 studies from EBSCOhost. Nineteen studies were included in the review. Conditions representing moral stressors and PMIEs as well as MD and MI as their potential outcomes in healthcare contexts during COVID-19 are presented and discussed. Highlighting MD and MI in HCWs during COVID-19 brings attention to the need for conceptualizing the impact of moral stressors of any degree. Therefore, the development of a common, theoretically founded model of MD and MI is desirable.

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“…Given the unique ethical challenges of HSCWs in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g. Greenberg et al, 2020), which are reflected in their personal narratives (Catania et al, 2020) and the accounts of mental health professionals who support them (Billings et al, 2021), we proposed that self-criticism and self-compassion are also likely to be associated with MI. Specifically, both high self-criticism and low self-compassion were hypothesized to characterize classes with high levels of exposure to PMIEs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moral injury and mental health outcomes among Israeli health and social care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a latent class analysis approach

Zerach

Levi‐Belz

2021

European Journal of Psychotraumatology

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Background:The COVID-19 pandemic poses unique challenges to health and social care workers (HSCWs) who face morally challenging and life-threatening decisions. Following exposure to events that transgress moral beliefs and expectations, HSCWs might experience psychological, social, and spiritual problems referred to as Moral Injury (MI). Objective: The objectives of this study were to examine patterns of exposure to potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs) among HSCWs and their associations with MI, mental health outcomes and psychological correlates. Method: A sample of 296 Israeli HSCWs volunteered to complete a cross-sectional electronic survey with validated self-report questionnaires in February and March 2021. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to identify classes characterized by unique patterns of exposure to PMIEs. Socio-demographic, work and COVID-related variables were used to predict patterns of exposure to PMIEs, and differences in mental-health outcomes and psychological correlates between classes were assessed. Results: Three subgroups were identified: 'high exposure' (19.5%), 'betrayal-only' (31.3%), and 'minimal exposure' (49.4%). Perceived stress increases the odds for inclusion in the 'high exposure' and 'betrayal-only' classes. Participants in both the High Exposure class and the betrayal-only classes reported higher levels of depressive, anxiety, posttraumatic and more moral injury symptoms as compared to the 'minimal exposure' class. Importantly, both 'high exposure' and 'betrayal-only' classes reported lower levels of self-compassion and higher levels of self-criticism, relative to those in the 'minimal exposure' class. Conclusions: The study's findings offer an overview of the complex associations between patterns of exposure to PMIEs and associated predictors and outcomes. Clinicians treating HSCWs coping with COVID-19 related stress should be aware of the contribution of exposure to PMIEs to HSCWs' distress and to the unique constellation of high self-criticism and low selfcompassion among HSCWs with exposure to PMIEs.

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Experiences of mental health professionals supporting front-line health and social care workers during COVID-19: qualitative study

Cited by 60 publications

References 19 publications

What support do frontline workers want? A qualitative study of health and social care workers’ experiences and views of psychosocial support during the COVID-19 pandemic

What support do frontline workers want? A qualitative study of health and social care workers’ experiences and views of psychosocial support during the COVID-19 pandemic

A Scoping Review of Moral Stressors, Moral Distress and Moral Injury in Healthcare Workers during COVID-19

Moral injury and mental health outcomes among Israeli health and social care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a latent class analysis approach

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