Ways to support healthcare workers during and post public health emergencies
Recent research identifies three methods to help reduce symptoms of anxiety, burnout, depression among healthcare workers.
Researchers aimed to identify effective interventions to support healthcare workers’ mental health and wellbeing during and following a public health emergency. The review screened a total of 20,018 records and included 36 unique studies.
Sarah Neil-Sztramko, an assistant professor for Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact (HEI) at McMaster led the research. She collaborated with numerous researchers, including SON faculty members such as Emily Belita, Diana Sherifali, Sharon Kaasalainen, and Maureen Dobbins.
Results indicate that psychotherapy, psychoeducation, and mind–body interventions may reduce symptoms of anxiety, burnout, depression, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Additionally, results showed that each type of intervention had its own benefit of use. While studies of psychotherapy interventions had the lowest risk of bias, psychoeducation appeared to be the most promising to increase resilience, and mind–body interventions had the most substantial evidence for increases in quality of life.
These findings can be used to inform the development of interventions to support healthcare workers’ mental health and wellbeing during and following public health emergencies. However, researchers note that the heterogeneity of populations and interventions means that the results should be interpreted with caution. Further research with differing cultural perspectives is needed as it may lead to conflicting views on mental health and wellness, which could alter results.
The review also highlights the need for continued research and evaluation of mental health programming being applied at not only an individual level, but an organizational level as well, to decrease the mental health risks in any future pandemics or public health emergencies. “Given ongoing challenges in our healthcare system leading to high levels of burnout among healthcare workers, these results can be used by organizational leaders to implement effective interventions to support their workforce” says Neil-Sztramko.
Read the full review here.
Research