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Occupational Stress and Mental Health Among Healthcare Workers Serving Socially Vulnerable Populations During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The purpose of this study was to analyze occupational and personal stressors, mental health indicators, perceived discrimination and help-seeking behaviors among healthcare workers and providers (HCWPs) serving socially vulnerable groups such as immigrants, refugees, farmworkers, homeless individual...

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Autores principales: Salgado de Snyder, V. Nelly, Villatoro, Alice P., McDaniel, Marisol D., Ocegueda, Ana Sofia, Garcia, Deliana, Parra-Medina, Deborah
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8695753/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34957034
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.782846
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author Salgado de Snyder, V. Nelly
Villatoro, Alice P.
McDaniel, Marisol D.
Ocegueda, Ana Sofia
Garcia, Deliana
Parra-Medina, Deborah
author_facet Salgado de Snyder, V. Nelly
Villatoro, Alice P.
McDaniel, Marisol D.
Ocegueda, Ana Sofia
Garcia, Deliana
Parra-Medina, Deborah
author_sort Salgado de Snyder, V. Nelly
collection PubMed
description The purpose of this study was to analyze occupational and personal stressors, mental health indicators, perceived discrimination and help-seeking behaviors among healthcare workers and providers (HCWPs) serving socially vulnerable groups such as immigrants, refugees, farmworkers, homeless individuals, people living in poverty, and other disadvantaged populations in the United States (U.S.) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a cross-sectional descriptive approach, we gathered information between July and September 2020, from a sample of 407 affiliates of two national organizations of clinic-based HCWPs who worked at federally funded and community safety-net clinics. Informed consent was obtained from all participants who completed a self-administered online survey available in English and Spanish. Our results indicated that the HCWPs serving vulnerable groups in the midst of the pandemic experienced high levels of occupational and personal stressors as well as anxiety and depressive symptomology. Major occupational stressors were excessive workload, long working-hours, and institutional barriers to refer and follow-up on their clients' access to needed social services. High-rated personal stressors included sleep disorders, lack of and child-care, partner's loosing job, and other family related situations. Our findings suggest that HCWPs working with vulnerable populations need specialized interventions that bolster their mental health and well-being as the pandemic continues to unfold. We recommend implementing initiatives that encourage HCWPs' to be actively involved in clinic decisions regarding employee safety and protection as well as in management decisions to improve work place infrastructure and capacity to respond to the social needs of their clients. Lessons learned from the pandemic are useful tools in designing protocols for addressing the mental-health needs of HCWPs in health-care organizations that attend to socially underprivileged populations.
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spelling pubmed-86957532021-12-24 Occupational Stress and Mental Health Among Healthcare Workers Serving Socially Vulnerable Populations During the COVID-19 Pandemic Salgado de Snyder, V. Nelly Villatoro, Alice P. McDaniel, Marisol D. Ocegueda, Ana Sofia Garcia, Deliana Parra-Medina, Deborah Front Public Health Public Health The purpose of this study was to analyze occupational and personal stressors, mental health indicators, perceived discrimination and help-seeking behaviors among healthcare workers and providers (HCWPs) serving socially vulnerable groups such as immigrants, refugees, farmworkers, homeless individuals, people living in poverty, and other disadvantaged populations in the United States (U.S.) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a cross-sectional descriptive approach, we gathered information between July and September 2020, from a sample of 407 affiliates of two national organizations of clinic-based HCWPs who worked at federally funded and community safety-net clinics. Informed consent was obtained from all participants who completed a self-administered online survey available in English and Spanish. Our results indicated that the HCWPs serving vulnerable groups in the midst of the pandemic experienced high levels of occupational and personal stressors as well as anxiety and depressive symptomology. Major occupational stressors were excessive workload, long working-hours, and institutional barriers to refer and follow-up on their clients' access to needed social services. High-rated personal stressors included sleep disorders, lack of and child-care, partner's loosing job, and other family related situations. Our findings suggest that HCWPs working with vulnerable populations need specialized interventions that bolster their mental health and well-being as the pandemic continues to unfold. We recommend implementing initiatives that encourage HCWPs' to be actively involved in clinic decisions regarding employee safety and protection as well as in management decisions to improve work place infrastructure and capacity to respond to the social needs of their clients. Lessons learned from the pandemic are useful tools in designing protocols for addressing the mental-health needs of HCWPs in health-care organizations that attend to socially underprivileged populations. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-12-09 /pmc/articles/PMC8695753/ /pubmed/34957034 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.782846 Text en Copyright © 2021 Salgado de Snyder, Villatoro, McDaniel, Ocegueda, Garcia and Parra-Medina. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Salgado de Snyder, V. Nelly
Villatoro, Alice P.
McDaniel, Marisol D.
Ocegueda, Ana Sofia
Garcia, Deliana
Parra-Medina, Deborah
Occupational Stress and Mental Health Among Healthcare Workers Serving Socially Vulnerable Populations During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Occupational Stress and Mental Health Among Healthcare Workers Serving Socially Vulnerable Populations During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Occupational Stress and Mental Health Among Healthcare Workers Serving Socially Vulnerable Populations During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Occupational Stress and Mental Health Among Healthcare Workers Serving Socially Vulnerable Populations During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Occupational Stress and Mental Health Among Healthcare Workers Serving Socially Vulnerable Populations During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Occupational Stress and Mental Health Among Healthcare Workers Serving Socially Vulnerable Populations During the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort occupational stress and mental health among healthcare workers serving socially vulnerable populations during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8695753/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34957034
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.782846
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