NUK - logo
E-viri
Celotno besedilo
Recenzirano
  • Protecting the Mental Healt...
    Howard, John; Houry, Debra

    American journal of public health (1971), 02/2024, Letnik: 114, Številka: S2
    Journal Article

    The United States is facing a mental health crisis, as more than one in five US adults live with a mental illness (57.8 million in 2021 ).1 The COVID-19 pandemic (March 11,2020-May 5, 2023) has been linked with increases in poor mental health outcomes in not only the general population but also among workers.2 The social and economic disruptions experienced by many people amplified and compressed mental health morbidity. Lifetime estimates of the prevalence of poor mental health outcomes were seen in the early, acute phases of the pandemic; for example, in June 2020, 40% of US adults reported struggling with mental health or substance use.3While working in health occupations has always been challenging, our entire system of providing health care has been under extreme duress for the past three years, and in some cases, it has been pushed near the breaking point. Difficult working conditions associated with health occupations, including long work hours and shiftwork, intense physical and emotional labor, exposure to human suffering and death, and risk of exposure to disease and violence, have all been magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic4 Health workers including not only frontline health care workers such as nurses and physicians but also public health workers, emergency medical service (EMS) first responders, mental health workers, long-term care workers, and others in many supporting roles, have been especially impacted by increased poor mental health outcomes.During the first year of the pandemic, across 65 studies involving 97 333 health workers, 22% reported moderate depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).5 One study, which surveyed more than 1100 health workers from June through September 2020, found that 93% reported they were experiencing stress, 86% reported anxiety, 76% reported exhaustion and burnout, and 41 % reported loneliness.6 Similarly, a survey of 26 174 public health workers in 2021 revealed that 53% were experiencing symptoms of at least one mental health condition.2 The mental health challenges have been experienced by both clinicians and those in nonclinical support roles, but fewer assistance resources have been available to lower-wage health workers. In 2022, only 22% of health workers in California reported adequate emotional support. Janitorial, food service, supply, and other support staff reported the lowest support (17%) among represented job types.