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“We were building the plane as we were flying it, and we somehow made it to the other end”: syringe service program staff experiences and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic
BACKGROUND: Syringe service programs (SSPs) provide essential harm reduction and prevention services for people who inject drugs in the USA, where SSP coverage is expanding. During the COVID-19 pandemic, US SSPs underwent unprecedented shifts in operational procedures (e.g., closures of physical sit...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9284956/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35841101 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12954-022-00661-1 |
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author | Wang, Andrea Jawa, Raagini Mackin, Sarah Whynott, Liz Buchholz, Connor Childs, Ellen Bazzi, Angela R. |
author_facet | Wang, Andrea Jawa, Raagini Mackin, Sarah Whynott, Liz Buchholz, Connor Childs, Ellen Bazzi, Angela R. |
author_sort | Wang, Andrea |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Syringe service programs (SSPs) provide essential harm reduction and prevention services for people who inject drugs in the USA, where SSP coverage is expanding. During the COVID-19 pandemic, US SSPs underwent unprecedented shifts in operational procedures (e.g., closures of physical sites, staff redeployment into pandemic response efforts). Given the critical role of US SSP workers in the pandemic, we sought to explore the occupational experiences and well-being of SSP staff to inform future emergency response efforts. METHODS: From July–October 2020, we conducted semi-structured interviews with staff members of four SSPs in diverse regions of Massachusetts. Trained interviewers administered qualitative interviews virtually. Interviews were coded in NVivo v12 and thematic analysis identified common occupational experiences and related impacts on staff well-being in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: Among 18 participants, 12 (67%) had client-facing roles such as harm reduction specialists and six (33%) worked in program management or leadership. We found that staff were frequently anxious about SARS-CoV-2 transmission, which contributed to staff turnover. SSPs rapidly adapted and expanded their services to meet increasing client needs during the pandemic (e.g., food distribution, COVID-19 testing), leading to staff overexertion. Simultaneously, public health measures such as physical distancing led to staff concerns about reduced social connections with clients and coworkers. Through these challenges, SSPs worked to protect staff well-being by implementing flexible and tangible COVID-19-related policies (e.g., paid sick leave), mental health resources, and frequent communication regarding pandemic-related operational changes. CONCLUSION: SSPs in the USA adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic out of necessity, resulting in operational changes that threatened staff well-being. Despite the protective factors revealed in some narratives, our findings suggest that during prolonged, complex public health emergencies, SSPs may benefit from enhanced occupational supports to prevent burnout and promote wellness for this essential public health workforce. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9284956 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-92849562022-07-15 “We were building the plane as we were flying it, and we somehow made it to the other end”: syringe service program staff experiences and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic Wang, Andrea Jawa, Raagini Mackin, Sarah Whynott, Liz Buchholz, Connor Childs, Ellen Bazzi, Angela R. Harm Reduct J Research BACKGROUND: Syringe service programs (SSPs) provide essential harm reduction and prevention services for people who inject drugs in the USA, where SSP coverage is expanding. During the COVID-19 pandemic, US SSPs underwent unprecedented shifts in operational procedures (e.g., closures of physical sites, staff redeployment into pandemic response efforts). Given the critical role of US SSP workers in the pandemic, we sought to explore the occupational experiences and well-being of SSP staff to inform future emergency response efforts. METHODS: From July–October 2020, we conducted semi-structured interviews with staff members of four SSPs in diverse regions of Massachusetts. Trained interviewers administered qualitative interviews virtually. Interviews were coded in NVivo v12 and thematic analysis identified common occupational experiences and related impacts on staff well-being in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: Among 18 participants, 12 (67%) had client-facing roles such as harm reduction specialists and six (33%) worked in program management or leadership. We found that staff were frequently anxious about SARS-CoV-2 transmission, which contributed to staff turnover. SSPs rapidly adapted and expanded their services to meet increasing client needs during the pandemic (e.g., food distribution, COVID-19 testing), leading to staff overexertion. Simultaneously, public health measures such as physical distancing led to staff concerns about reduced social connections with clients and coworkers. Through these challenges, SSPs worked to protect staff well-being by implementing flexible and tangible COVID-19-related policies (e.g., paid sick leave), mental health resources, and frequent communication regarding pandemic-related operational changes. CONCLUSION: SSPs in the USA adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic out of necessity, resulting in operational changes that threatened staff well-being. Despite the protective factors revealed in some narratives, our findings suggest that during prolonged, complex public health emergencies, SSPs may benefit from enhanced occupational supports to prevent burnout and promote wellness for this essential public health workforce. BioMed Central 2022-07-15 /pmc/articles/PMC9284956/ /pubmed/35841101 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12954-022-00661-1 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data. |
spellingShingle | Research Wang, Andrea Jawa, Raagini Mackin, Sarah Whynott, Liz Buchholz, Connor Childs, Ellen Bazzi, Angela R. “We were building the plane as we were flying it, and we somehow made it to the other end”: syringe service program staff experiences and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title | “We were building the plane as we were flying it, and we somehow made it to the other end”: syringe service program staff experiences and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_full | “We were building the plane as we were flying it, and we somehow made it to the other end”: syringe service program staff experiences and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_fullStr | “We were building the plane as we were flying it, and we somehow made it to the other end”: syringe service program staff experiences and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_full_unstemmed | “We were building the plane as we were flying it, and we somehow made it to the other end”: syringe service program staff experiences and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_short | “We were building the plane as we were flying it, and we somehow made it to the other end”: syringe service program staff experiences and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic |
title_sort | “we were building the plane as we were flying it, and we somehow made it to the other end”: syringe service program staff experiences and well-being during the covid-19 pandemic |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9284956/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35841101 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12954-022-00661-1 |
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