The collective of health professionals, amongst the most impacted by Covid-19
Summary
Health professionals are one of the groups that have suffered the most from COVID-19 due to the enormous pressure on the health system and the difficult working conditions they have had, especially in the first wave. Already immersed in the second wave of COVID-19, the RESPOND project will study the current needs and conditions of the health system in order to implement an intervention aimed at first-line health professionals and aimed at improving your well-being, mental health, and job functioning during and after the pandemic. The project, funded by the European Union, has a duration of three years.
The COVID-19 pandemic has radically changed the daily lives of people around the world. It has affected almost all countries and Spain is one of those that has suffered the most from its effects in Europe.
Emotions such as stress, fear, sadness or worry have been very present during the COVID-19 pandemic. All of us, to a greater or lesser extent, have experienced some of these emotions. At the beginning of the crisis, the World Health Organization (WHO) already warned of the negative impact that the situation derived from COVID-19 could have on the mental health and well-being of the population, as could be seen shortly after:
In 2020 the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression have multiplied, respectively by 3 and by 4, compared to in the same period in 2019.
One of the groups that since the beginning of the pandemic has been directly affected emotionally by COVID-19 is that of front-line health professionals. In addition to facing all the emotions derived from the global crisis situation, healthcare personnel have had to take on a series of challenges in their daily activities that have had a great impact on their psychological and emotional well-being. According to the Spanish Society of Psychiatry, the main challenges these professionals have had to face during the pandemic have been saturation of health care, exposure to a greater risk of infection and contagion, the lack of individual protection equipment and their discomfort, the need to guarantee support and health care for sick people and their families, the high workload and situations of extreme stress, exposure to the grief of families and the ethical and moral dilemmas derived from the need to make complex decisions in a short time.
Almost half of healthcare professionals have been at risk for a mental disorder
Different studies have shown the psychological impact that the coronavirus crisis has had on this group, from insomnia problems to depression and severe anxiety, especially among its most vulnerable members, such as, for example, women and nurses. On the other hand, 50% of the deaths associated with COVID-19 in Europe have occurred in homes for the elderly and in long-term care centers, where many workers, mostly women, carry out their work in inadequate conditions in exchange for a very small salary and without the necessary personal protective equipment. That is why the WHO has called for the immediate application of the essential measures to save lives and prevent the impact that this situation can have on the mental and physical health of health professionals (WHO, 2020).
In order to reduce the mental health problems derived from the COVID-19 pandemic and improve the preparedness of the health system for future pandemics, the RESPOND project (Improving the preparedness of Health Systems to Reduce Mental Health and Psychosocial Concerns resulting from the COVID-19 Pandemic). RESPOND is an international study funded by the European Union and launched in December 2020 with an expected duration of 3 years. It involves 13 universities and research centers from 8 European countries (France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom and Belgium), as well as the University of New South Wales in Australia. The Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu team is coordinated by Dr. Josep Maria Haro, Dr. Mireia Félez and Anna Monistrol, as well as various healthcare professionals. Dr. Marit Sijbrandij from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam is the international coordinator of the consortium.
¿Cómo se desarrollará el proyecto RESPOND?
El proyecto RESPOND se llevará a cabo principalmente en 3 etapas que se irán desarrollando de forma paralela.
Primera etapa: ¿Cuáles son los grupos de riesgo y cómo ha afectado la pandemia a los servicios de salud mental?
La primera etapa del proyecto se centrará fundamentalmente en la identificación de los grupos de riesgo susceptibles de sufrir problemas de salud mental y de bienestar relacionados con la pandemia de la COVID-19, y en el estudio del impacto de la respuesta a la pandemia de la COVID-19 por parte de los servicios de salud a largo plazo. Más concretamente, se analizarán una serie de datos epidemiológicos de distintos países con el fin de identificar los factores de riesgo y de resiliencia relacionados con la pandemia. Al mismo tiempo, se analizará el impacto de las medidas adoptadas en los servicios de salud mental de diferentes países ante la crisis de la COVID-19. Para ello, se estudiarán diversos factores de salud, así como el uso de los servicios de salud mental y los factores socioeconómicos en diferentes entornos de Europa que hayan adoptado medidas distintas para controlar la pandemia.
Segunda etapa: ¿Qué se está haciendo en Europa? En la segunda etapa del proyecto se evaluarán las medidas existentes en Europa para proteger el bienestar y la salud mental de los profesionales de la salud de primera línea. Asimismo, se llevarán a cabo evaluaciones para determinar cómo se está actuando en distintos países europeos para evitar problemas de salud mental derivados de la crisis de la COVID-19 en este colectivo.
Tercera etapa: Intervención. Se estudiarán las necesidades actuales y las condiciones en las que se encuentra el sistema sanitario con el fin de implementar una intervención dirigida a los profesionales de la salud de primera línea y destinada a mejorar su bienestar, salud mental y funcionamiento laboral durante y después de la pandemia.
¿Cómo intervendremos?
Se llevará a cabo un ensayo clínico en diferentes hospitales, entre ellos el Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de Déu. La intención es reclutar a un mínimo de 210 profesionales de la salud, en activo cuando se inició la pandemia y que presenten malestar emocional. El programa de intervención será remoto y escalable, es decir, fácilmente aplicable a otros hospitales nacionales e internacionales, y se basará en programas existentes desarrollados por la OMS que han demostrado su eficacia en estudios previos llevados a cabo en distintos contextos socioculturales.
¿Cuál puede ser el impacto del proyecto?
Este proyecto pondrá de manifiesto las necesidades y las condiciones del sistema sanitario durante la crisis de la COVID-19 y evaluará si el uso de la intervención probada es eficaz para mejorar la salud mental y el bienestar emocional de los profesionales sanitarios. El proyecto RESPOND proporcionará a las autoridades de asistencia sanitaria y salud pública nacionales y regionales la orientación y las herramientas necesarias para mejorar la salud mental y el bienestar emocional de los profesionales de primera línea que serán aplicables a futuras crisis de similares características.
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