The mental health issue of doctors who treat covid

The COVID-19 outbreak, which has killed more than 2,700 people and caused around 81,000 cases globally, has had a mental impact on healthy people, including health workers. What will the health impact be on health workers in charge of handling COVID-19 patients?

Mental health issues among doctors and other health professionals are sometimes ignored because they are not visible to the naked eye. However, if this problem persists and for a long time, it will certainly affect physical health.

Therefore, it is very important to discuss the mental health of doctors and health workers in dealing with COVID-19.

Doctors' mental health is facing COVID-19

To date, the number of COVID-19 cases continues to increase, both in China and outside China. Not surprisingly, there are a number of doctors and healthcare professionals who are overwhelmed with the growing number of patients. In fact, not a few of them were infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus and eventually died.

Facing an epidemic of infectious diseases on a large scale, of course, puts them under great pressure. In the end, they were mentally disturbed.

COVID-19 Outbreak updates Country: IndonesiaData

1,024,298

Confirmed

831,330

Recovered

28,855

DeathDistribution Map

The number of doctors and medical personnel who are not proportional to the number of patients who come makes them required to work non-stop and not get enough rest. In addition, they also witnessed tens of thousands of patients who were tortured by COVID-19, so it is not surprising that the mental health of the team of doctors is disturbed.

The Chinese government realizes this and tries various things to guide medical staff in dealing with common psychological problems. However, according to research from Lancet, the service is experiencing bottlenecks. Many health workers are reluctant to participate in government assistance.

Some of the nurses showed resistance, refusing to rest, but showing signs of mental distress despite saying they didn't have a problem. Therefore, the researchers conducted a 30-minute interview with doctors and health workers who handle COVID-19 to look at their mental health issues.

As a result, there are several reasons why medical staff experience psychological pressure during their duties:

• the beginning of work was not so worried about being infected with a virus
• don't want to make the family anxious
• don't know how to handle patients when they don't want to go into quarantine
• worried about the availability of personal protective equipment and masks
• feeling inadequate when faced with a critical patient

Not a few doctors and other health workers reveal that they do not need a psychologist. Instead, they need more rest time without interruption and the availability of adequate protective equipment.

In fact, the medical staff suggests providing psychological skills training. The training aims to help deal with anxiety, panic, and emotional problems faced by patients.

How does the Chinese government solve this problem?

The mental health issues experienced by the team of doctors and health workers handling COVID-19 are certainly not problems that can be ignored.

When mental health is disturbed, treating patients will certainly have an impact on their physical health. As a result, medical staff are more susceptible to infection from patients or other doctors who have been infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Therefore, the government has finally adjusted the way to assist medical staff in dealing with their mental health issues, such as:

1. Provide a rest area for the medical team

One way for the government to deal with mental health issues experienced by doctors and health workers who deal with COVID-19 is to provide a place to rest. The rest area provided by the hospital is like an “isolation room” from their family and co-workers.

Apart from that, they also guaranteed food and supplies of daily necessities. In fact, doctors and health workers are also assisted in recording daily activities at the hospital to be shared with their families.

This aims to reduce the anxiety felt by their family members. In essence, well-being when caring for patients is given priority in maintaining the mental health of medical staff.

2. Provide pre-employment training

Apart from providing pre-employment training on knowledge of diseases and ways to reduce the risk of spreading infection, medical staff are also provided with the psychological problems of patients. That is, doctors will be provided with basic knowledge about responding to COVID-19 patients who experience mental health issues related to the outbreak.

Doctors who do not know what to do when a patient refuses to be quarantined will also be helped. The hospital will send security staff to make patients more cooperative. That way, the psychological pressure experienced by doctors and medical teams regarding patients who are unable to cooperate or experience mental health issues can be reduced.

3. Develop regulations on PPE COVID-19

Medical personnel are also worried about the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE), such as protective clothing and masks. Finally, they tried to cover up these shortcomings with conventional methods that turned out to be not safe enough, such as:

• patching of the disposable protective mask
• use googles single use repeatedly
• wrap the shoes in a plastic bag because there is no special cover

These deficiencies increase the risk of transmission to medical staff to be quite high, considering they are in the "hotbed" of the virus, namely the hospital.

In order for supplies to be fulfilled again, the government finally issued a regulation on the use of masks that was implemented throughout Wuhan. This is intended as an effort to 'save' the mental health of doctors who treat COVID-19.

4. Provide facilities to relax

The Chinese government is so worried about the activities of doctors and other medical staff who are busy dealing with COVID-19, thus neglecting their mental health. Thus, several hospitals have opened leisure facilities and training on how to relax in the midst of an epidemic to manage the stress of medical staff.

The government also regularly brings in psychological counselors who will visit their rest areas. During the session, doctors and other health professionals are asked to tell stories and the counselor will provide appropriate support.

That way, hundreds of medical staff at the center of the Wuhan outbreak can rest in the provided space. In fact, not a few of them feel comfortable with this facility.

Maintaining the mental health of medical staff such as doctors and nurses while dealing with the contagious disease COVID-19 is quite important. However, the best approach to resolve the issue of psychological distress during disease outbreaks is unclear.

However, the steps taken by the government can at least reduce the stress burden experienced by them.