scholarly journals Healthcare staff well-being and use of support services during COVID-19: a UK perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 34 (3) ◽  
pp. e100458
Author(s):  
Anika R Petrella ◽  
Luke Hughes ◽  
Lorna A Fern ◽  
Lisa Monaghan ◽  
Benjamin Hannon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Acute Phase ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Service Use ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Rapid Evaluation ◽  
Personal Factors ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Supportive Services ◽  
Post Traumatic

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has drastically increased demands on healthcare workers (HCWs) leaving them vulnerable to acute psychological distress, burnout and post-traumatic stress. In response, supportive services in a central London hospital mobilised mental health support specifically for HCWs.AimsThis rapid evaluation assessed HCW psychological welfare during the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic and their use of supportive services made available.MethodsDuring the acute phase of COVID-19 (April to May 2020) all staff working for the hospital were invited to complete an online survey assessing well-being (self-rated health, moral distress exposure, symptoms of burnout and psychological distress) and use of available supportive services (awareness of, use and perceived helpfulness). Associations among personal characteristics and psychological well-being were explored using correlations and linear regression.ResultsA total of 1127 staff participated in the rapid evaluation. On average, psychological distress was high (mean (SD): 22 (7.57)) regardless of role, with 84% of this sample scoring above the general population mean (14.5). Nearly half of the sample reported feeling emotionally drained and a profile emerged displaying higher levels of psychological distress and burnout in those who were younger and exposed to morally distressing situations, with this group also exhibiting greater support service use. Greater levels of burnout were associated with increased psychological distress when controlling for personal factors. During this acute phase of the pandemic, majority of staff used at least one service and rated it as helpful.ConclusionHCWs experienced high levels of psychological distress requiring continued support as the COVID-19 pandemic evolved. Although HCWs were aware of supportive services, uptake varied. In order to mitigate the risk of burnout and post-traumatic stress, long-term, effective strategies that facilitate staff accessing support are urgently required.

scholarly journals Post-traumatic stress disorder following COVID-19 pandemic among medical students in Riyadh: a cross-sectional study

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zainab Ifthikar ◽  
Saima Sajjad Fakih ◽  
Saumy Johnson ◽  
Johnson Alex
Keyword(s):  
Medical Students ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background In recent times, COVID-19 has been recognized as a public health emergency and thus far, most papers published on it are focused only on the clinical characteristics of infected patients. This pandemic has also made phenomenal emotional impact among the young and the old. We aimed to find out the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological well-being of medical students in a University at Riyadh. Results There were 309 participants in the study. Out of them 44% did not have PTSD, 29% had score more than 37 which might contribute to immune suppression, in 18.4% PTSD was a clinical concern and 8.6% had probable PTSD. Female participants were the majority in the group and they also had higher chance of having consequences than the male counterparts (P < 0.001). Avoidance score between male and female gender was significantly different. Conclusion COVID-19 pandemic has not just affected the physiological functioning of the affected individuals but also has had a probable post-traumatic stress disorder among young college students. Screening for psychological well-being and the treatment for PTSD is imperative in college, school and general population.

scholarly journals Perceived stress and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms among intensive care unit staff caring for severely ill coronavirus disease 2019 patients during the pandemic: a national study

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nisha Kader ◽  
Bushra Elhusein ◽  
Nirvana Swamy Kudlur Chandrappa ◽  
Abdulqadir J. Nashwan ◽  
Prem Chandra ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Perceived Stress ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Ptsd Symptoms ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Post Traumatic

Abstract Background Intensive care unit (ICU) staff have faced unprecedented challenges during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which could significantly affect their mental health and well-being. The present study aimed to investigate perceived stress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms reported by ICU staff working directly with COVID-19 patients. Methods The Perceived Stress Scale was used to assess perceived stress, the PTSD Diagnostic Scale for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th edition) was used to determine PTSD symptoms, and a sociodemographic questionnaire was used to record different sociodemographic variables. Results Altogether, 124 participants (57.2% of whom were men) were included in the analysis. The majority of participants perceived working in the ICU with COVID-19 patients as moderately to severely stressful. Moreover, 71.4% of doctors and 74.4% of nurses experienced moderate-to-severe perceived stress. The staff with previous ICU experience were less likely to have a probable diagnosis of PTSD than those without previous ICU experience. Conclusions Assessing perceived stress levels and PTSD among ICU staff may enhance our understanding of COVID-19-induced mental health challenges. Specific strategies to enhance ICU staff’s mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic should be employed and monitored regularly. Interventions aimed at alleviating sources of anxiety in a high-stress environment may reduce the likelihood of developing PTSD.

scholarly journals Exploring the Complex Pathways between the Fear of COVID-19 and Preventive Health Behavior among Nigerians: Mediation and Moderation Analyses

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olusola Ayandele ◽  
Cristian A. Ramos-Vera ◽  
Steven K. Iorfa ◽  
Catherine O. Chovwen ◽  
Peter O. Olapegba
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Health Behavior ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Preventive Health ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Mediation Effects ◽  
Stress Symptoms ◽  
Preventive Health Behavior ◽  
Post Traumatic

Since COVID-19 currently has no proven cure but high morbidity and mortality; many people are living in fear of the virus along with other mental health challenges induced by the lockdowns and social distancing. Hence, this study aims to provide evidence on the co-occurrence and inter-relations between the fear of COVID-19, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and psychological distress in adherence to preventive health behavior among Nigerians. It also seeks to determine whether this process differs for men and women. The sample comprised 1,172 consenting young adults (mean age = 22.9 ± 6.6 years, 54.5% females) selected using a snowball sampling technique. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the mediation model of post-traumatic stress symptoms and psychological distress as parallel and serial mediators of the relationship between the fear of COVID-19 and preventive health behavior. The indirect effect of the fear of COVID-19 on preventive health behavior across gender was tested using moderation analysis. Results showed that post-traumatic stress symptoms and psychological distress serially and fully, in causal order, mediated the association between the fear of COVID-19 and preventive health behavior, and gender moderated the mediation effects. The research provides evidence that the fear of COVID-19 could trigger preventive health behavior through post-traumatic stress symptoms but reduces it through psychological distress, whereas the fear of COVID-19 has a slightly more positive impact on preventive health behavior among men.

scholarly journals A deep learning approach for identifying cancer survivors living with post-traumatic stress disorder on Twitter

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (S4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nur Hafieza Ismail ◽  
Ninghao Liu ◽  
Mengnan Du ◽  
Zhe He ◽  
Xia Hu
Keyword(s):  
Cancer Survivors ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Disorder ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Fear Of Cancer Recurrence ◽  
Psychological State ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Post Traumatic

Abstract Background Emotions after surviving cancer can be complicated. The survivors may have gained new strength to continue life, but some of them may begin to deal with complicated feelings and emotional stress due to trauma and fear of cancer recurrence. The widespread use of Twitter for socializing has been the alternative medium for data collection compared to traditional studies of mental health, which primarily depend on information taken from medical staff with their consent. These social media data, to a certain extent, reflect the users’ psychological state. However, Twitter also contains a mix of noisy and genuine tweets. The process of manually identifying genuine tweets is expensive and time-consuming. Methods We stream the data using cancer as a keyword to filter the tweets with cancer-free and use post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related keywords to reduce the time spent on the annotation task. Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) learns the representations of the input to identify cancer survivors with PTSD. Results The results present that the proposed CNN can effectively identify cancer survivors with PTSD. The experiments on real-world datasets show that our model outperforms the baselines and correctly classifies the new tweets. Conclusions PTSD is one of the severe anxiety disorders that could affect individuals who are exposed to traumatic events, including cancer. Cancer survivors are at risk of short-term or long-term effects on physical and psycho-social well-being. Therefore, the evaluation and treatment of PTSD are essential parts of cancer survivorship care. It will act as an alarming system by detecting the PTSD presence based on users’ postings on Twitter.

scholarly journals Health-related quality of life and well-being in parents of infants and toddlers with cancer

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Janelle Monique Morhun ◽  
N.M. Racine ◽  
G.M.T. Guilcher ◽  
L.M. Tomfohr-Madsen ◽  
F.S.M. Schulte
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Young Children ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Stress Symptoms ◽  
Related Quality ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Post Traumatic ◽  
Active Cancer

Background: The unique psychosocial needs of parents and caregivers of young children with cancer are poorly understood.  The aims of this study were to examine: 1) the health-related quality of life (HRQL), stress, and psychological distress in parents of young children (0-4 years) diagnosed with cancer, and 2) the associations between parent psychosocial functioning and child treatment characteristics. Methods: Parents (N= 35) with a child (19 males, 54.3%) aged 0-48 months (M= 31.06 months) who were on active cancer therapy were recruited. Parents completed questionnaires related to demographics, parent HRQL, parenting stress, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and parent psychological distress. Results: Parents reported clinically elevated parenting stress (5.88%), post-traumatic stress symptoms (18.18%), and psychological distress (21.87%). Compared to population norms, parents reported lower HRQL in the vitality (t= 5.37, p< .001), mental health (t= 4.02, p< .001), role limitation/emotional (t= 3.52, p< .001), and general health (t= 2.25, p= .025) domains. Number of days since diagnosis (β= -.35, p= .030), child surgery (β= .360, p= .023), and parent social functioning (β= -.40, p= .009) predicted parent psychological distress F(3,24)= 9.11, p< .001, R2 =.53. Conclusions: A subset of parents of young children on active cancer treatment experience clinically-elevated psychosocial symptoms. Having a child who undergoes surgery and having poor social connections put parents at risk of experiencing higher psychological distress. Supports that focus on preventing the emergence of clinically significant distress should focus on parents of young children with cancer who are most at risk of poor outcomes.

scholarly journals Early cognitive–behavioural therapy for post-traumatic stress symptoms after physical injury

2004 ◽  
Vol 184 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan I. Bisson ◽  
Jonathan P. Shepherd ◽  
Deborah Joy ◽  
Rachel Probert ◽  
Robert G. Newcombe
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Traumatic Stress ◽  
Behavioural Intervention ◽  
Psychological Interventions ◽  
Physical Injury ◽  
Post Traumatic Stress ◽  
Event Scale ◽  
Cognitive Behavioural ◽  
Cognitive Behavioural Intervention ◽  
Post Traumatic

BackgroundEarly single-session psychological interventions, including psychological debriefing following trauma, have not been shown to reduce psychological distress. Longer early psychological interventions have shown some promise.AimsTo examine the efficacy of a four-session cognitive–behavioural intervention following physical injury.MethodA total of 152 patients attending an accident and emergency department displaying psychological distress following physical injury were randomised 1–3 weeks post-injury to a four-session cognitive–behavioural intervention that started 5–10 weeks after the injury or to no intervention and then followed up for 13 months.ResultsAt 13 months, the total Impact of Event Scale score was significantly more reduced in the intervention group (adjusted mean difference=8.4, 95% CI 2.4–14.36). Other differences were not statistically significant.ConclusionsAbrief cognitive–behavioural intervention reduces symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in individuals with physical injury who display initial distress.

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