Results of mental support for health care professionals and mental care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) resulted into a global pandemic and continues to thrive until vaccines have been successfully developed and distributed around the world. The outcomes of COVID-19 contaminations range from death to minor health-related complaints. Furthermore, and not less significant, the increasing pressure on local as well as global health care is rising. In The Netherlands but also in other countries, further intensified regulations are introduced in order to contain the second wave of COVID-19, primarily to limit the number contaminations but also to prevent the health care professionals for giving in to the rising pressure on them. The results of the campaign for health care professionals in The Netherlands show that health care professionals are increasingly searching for information regarding psychological symptoms such as feeling of uncertainty, pondering and advice regarding the support of care teams. In this short update, we provide the results of the previous campaign and stress the importance of support after COVID-19 based on these results.

Post-pandemic self-reported mental health of mental healthcare professionals in the Netherlands compared to during the pandemic - an online longitudinal follow-up study.

The mental health of professionals was under pressure during- and post-pandemic. Initially, the focus was mainly on the health workers in the hospitals, but over time the pressure shifted to other sectors, including mental health care. An increase in workload and decrease in mental health of healthcare professionals in mental health care can lead to a decrease in the available care capacity. In an earlier online survey of mental health professionals, 1,300 professionals from a large number of mental healthcare institutions were involved. In this study, conducted in September 2021, about half of the respondents reported increased levels of stress. Feelings of anxiety, anger, and sadness were also increasingly experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, 4.2% replied that they were considering resigning their jobs. One of the recommendations of this previous study was to monitor these professionals repeatedly to be able to make an estimate of the stress and vision of work during the course of the pandemic and afterwards. Following this recommendation, the online survey was repeated. The aim of the current online longitudinal follow-up study was to re-evaluated mental status of healthcare workers. 510 healthcare workers participated in this follow-up survey. The reported mental health complaints were significantly higher during compared to post-pandemic. Respondents were less able to maintain work/life balance during the pandemic and even reported a shift to work. However, the majority of respondents indicated that they had restored this balance post-pandemic. Moreover, more sick leave was reported post-pandemic than during the pandemic and more frequent absences post-pandemic. This highlights the importance of focusing on resilience over training and career.

Psychometric properties of three instruments to measure recovery.

BACKGROUND: The process of recovery is gaining more and more attention within health care for patients with severe mental illness. Therefore, instruments to measure recovery can be useful for clinical and research purposes. AIMS: This study evaluates the psychometric properties of three instruments pertaining to recovery for possible application in the Netherlands. The Recovery Attitude Questionnaire and the Recovery Knowledge Inventory were investigated among 210 mental health professionals, and the Recovery Promoting Relationship Scale was administered to 142 mental health consumers. METHODS: The factor structure, reliability and internal consistency were examined using the same analysis strategy. First, each questionnaire was submitted to a confirmatory factor analysis based on the factorial structure proposed by the original developers of the questionnaire. In case of a bad fit, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted. Based on factor analyses, subscales were formed for each questionnaire and the internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was assessed. In all three cases the final principal axes solution was obliquely rotated by means of the OBLIMIN rotation procedure. RESULTS: The originally proposed factor structure did not yield an acceptable fit in any of the Dutch samples. After analyses, three instruments are proposed that are suitable for research on recovery-oriented competencies and the recovery-promoting relationship for professionals working with people with serious mental illness in the Netherlands. CONCLUSIONS: The results in this study may be a step forward and give a new impulse to stimulate research in mental health recovery.

[Alarming situation amongst mental health care employees; mental health issues with possible resignation as a consequence]. / Alarmerend beeld onder personeel ggz; uitputting, angst- en somberheidsklachten met mogelijk vertrek uit de ggz als gevolg: Wat kan de ggz doen?

While the COVID-19 pandemic integrates more and more into daily life and hospitalizations decrease, the consequence for mental health care personnel is becoming clearer. 50% of the employees in mental health care institutes experience stress and 30% have signs of depression. Simultaneously more patients present themselves at the mental health care institutes with complaints as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This increases workload even more while the waiting lists are already very long. To prevent sick leave and/or even resigning, social support in the working environment, prevention measures for mental complaints, and support have to be initiated by every level of the mental health care institutes.

The moderating effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental wellbeing of health care workers on sustainable employability: A scoping review.

Sustainable employability (SE) amongst healthcare workers (HCW) is an important asset for healthcare institutions. However, SE is under strain due to high work pressure, a shortage of employees, and absenteeism amongst employees based on mental problems. These developments had already started before the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this review is to explore whether there is a moderating effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental wellbeing of HCW in the context of SE. A double blinded systematic review was conducted for this article in accordance with preferred reporting items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Eligible studies were subjected to quality evaluation and narrative synthesis. The analysis of the selected literature led to the understanding that mental problems amongst HCW were already abundantly present before the COVID-19 pandemic. Mental health problems have increased in prevalence, severity, and variation. In general, a negative relation between (mental) health and SE exists. Our findings show that mental health problems have heavily impacted the SE of HCW: absenteeism has increased and perspective on work has changed. It is time to prioritize the mental health of HCW to prevent acute care capacity from declining even further and ending up in a vicious circle.

Substantial Impact of COVID-19 on Self-Reported Mental Health of Healthcare Professionals in the Netherlands.

Initially, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a continued pressure on professionals working in hospitals due to the increase of affected patients. At the moment, the pandemic continues but thanks to all kinds of measures (e.g., social distancing) workload seems to decrease at the hospitals. On the contrary, patients with long-lasting symptoms due to COVID-19 infection or the pandemic begin to merge at the mental healthcare institutions in the Netherlands but this also holds true for other countries. Furthermore, healthcare professionals are affected by safety measures such as working from home, which led to an increased feeling of stress and may have led to a misbalance in work and private life. As a result, the question whether healthcare employees in mental healthcare experience impaired mental health remains unclear and chances are fair that mental health problems such as exhaustion and burnout may be prevalent. This study describes an online survey in which mental health amongst mental healthcare professionals is investigated. About 1,300 professionals from a large number of mental healthcare institutions replied the survey. Around 50% of the respondents experienced increased levels of stress. Feelings of anxiety, anger, and sadness were also increasingly experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, 4.2% replied that they were considering resigning their jobs which is alarming considering the shortage of healthcare professionals in mental healthcare institutions. The results support the importance of treatment or support of professionals in mental healthcare that experience psychological ailments.

Evaluation of a recovery-oriented care training program for mental healthcare professionals: effects on mental health consumer outcomes.

OBJECTIVES: To examine the effects of a recovery-oriented care training program for mental healthcare professionals on mental health consumer outcomes. METHODS: The Mental Health Recovery Measure (MHRM) and the Recovery-Promoting Relationship Scale (RPRS) were administered to a sample of 142 consumers with severe mental illness. A repeated measurement design with six measurement occasions was used. ANALYSES: Separate analyses were performed for the MHRM and RPRS subscales. Data were analyzed by means of the software package AMOS for structural equation modeling. First, the means of the five scales were computed at each measurement occasion. Next, two series of regression analyses were conducted: the first series aimed to ascertain whether gender and age have a significant effect on the MHRM and RPRS scores, and the second series aimed to detect a systematic trend in the average scale response of the MHRM and RPRS. RESULTS: Scores showed a significant change over time for the subscale 'Learning & new potentials' of the MHRM. Significant effects were also found for gender, with men scoring higher than women on the subscales 'Self-empowerment' and 'Learning & new potentials'. Age had no effect on the MHRM and RPRS. The scores on the RPRS showed no significant change over time. CONCLUSIONS: One year after completion of the recovery-oriented training program for professionals, positive results were found for two subscales of the MHRM, that is, 'Self- empowerment' and 'Learning & new potentials'.