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Longitudinal Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Stress and Occupational Well-Being of Mental Health Professionals: An International Study

BACKGROUND: Increased levels of occupational stress among health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic have been documented. Few studies have examined the effects of the pandemic on mental health professionals despite the heightened demand for their services. METHOD: A multilingual, longitudina...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Kogan, Cary S, Garcia-Pacheco, José A, Rebello, Tahilia J, Montoya, Madeline I, Robles, Rebeca, Khoury, Brigitte, Kulygina, Maya, Matsumoto, Chihiro, Huang, Jingjing, Medina-Mora, María Elena, Gureje, Oye, Stein, Dan J, Sharan, Pratap, Gaebel, Wolfgang, Kanba, Shigenobu, Andrews, Howard F, Roberts, Michael C, Pike, Kathleen M, Zhao, Min, Ayuso-Mateos, José Luis, Sadowska, Karolina, Maré, Karen, Denny, Keith, Reed, Geoffrey M
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10586039/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37531283
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ijnp/pyad046
Descripción
Sumario:BACKGROUND: Increased levels of occupational stress among health professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic have been documented. Few studies have examined the effects of the pandemic on mental health professionals despite the heightened demand for their services. METHOD: A multilingual, longitudinal, global survey was conducted at 3 time points during the pandemic among members of the World Health Organization’s Global Clinical Practice Network. A total of 786 Global Clinical Practice Network members from 86 countries responded to surveys assessing occupational distress, well-being, and posttraumatic stress symptoms. RESULTS: On average, respondents’ well-being deteriorated across time while their posttraumatic stress symptoms showed a modest improvement. Linear growth models indicated that being female, being younger, providing face-to-face health services to patients with COVID-19, having been a target of COVID-related violence, and living in a low- or middle-income country or a country with a higher COVID-19 death rate conveyed greater risk for poor well-being and higher level of stress symptoms over time. Growth mixed modeling identified trajectories of occupational well-being and stress symptoms. Most mental health professions demonstrated no impact to well-being; maintained moderate, nonclinical levels of stress symptoms; or showed improvements after an initial period of difficulty. However, some participant groups exhibited deteriorating well-being approaching the clinical threshold (25.8%) and persistently high and clinically significant levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms (19.6%) over time. CONCLUSIONS: This study indicates that although most mental health professionals exhibited stable, positive well-being and low stress symptoms during the pandemic, a substantial minority of an already burdened global mental health workforce experienced persistently poor or deteriorating psychological status over the course of the pandemic.