Health workers take on so much—they are tireless caregivers, advocates and confidants, often undertaking a considerable amount of emotional pressure in their jobs. This couldn’t be truer during the pandemic, and health workers around the world are feeling the strain. A recent study shows that more than 33% of nurses stated their mental health as bad or very bad, underscoring the concern that the current pandemic will lead to an increase of stress and job burnout among health care workers.
The World Health Organization has called for a scaling-up of mental health services in response to COVID-19, describing the pandemic as “an opportunity to build a mental health system that is fit for the future.” It advocates shifting care away from institutions to communities and building the human resource capacity to deliver quality mental health and social care. Given the projected healthcare worker shortages of 18 million worldwide, the resilience and mental wellbeing of frontline health workers themselves is paramount, as they are the cornerstone of a strong and resilient health system.
This #WorldMentalHealthDay, here are three ways to address frontline health worker burnout, based on what we’ve learned from our partnerships and programs so far:
1. Remote support: Immediate remote support, including virtual consultations, video counseling, hotlines, and text messaging, can help improve the psychosocial well-being and resilience of frontline health workers through real-time connection with a trusted resource. Learn how our partnerships with IDEWE (Belgium) AFMM (Lebanon) or Mental Health UK are making a difference through remote support for frontline health workers and patients.
2. Resilience Training: Psychosocial online training can provide health workers with pragmatic solutions and methods to increase their resilience in the face of time pressures, patient trauma, heavy workloads, and other factors that exacerbate health worker burnout. Our work with WCEA is employing these training models to facilitate health worker resilience; learn more about this work here.
3. Peer to peer support and mentoring: Health workers understand the daily challenges of their peers best. Learn how peer-to-peer support groups like IDRAAC (Lebanon) are providing mentorship and companionship to frontline health workers.
At the Center for Health Worker Innovation, our belief is that by investing early in resilience of frontline health workers, we can strengthen our health systems in the long-term. This World Mental Health Day, what ideas do you have to address frontline health worker burnout? Let me know in the comments.
Since March 2020, in support to the Center for Health worker Innovation, Johnson & Johnson and the Johnson & Johnson Foundation have allocated $5 million to support frontline health workers who are caring for COVID19 patients, namely with Personal Protective Equipment, training and psychosocial support.