TIME (4/10) reported that “a study published March 23 in the medical journal JAMA found that, among 1,257 healthcare workers working with COVID-19 patients in China, 50.4% reported symptoms of depression, 44.6% symptoms of anxiety, 34% insomnia, and 71.5% reported distress.” Meanwhile, in interviews with TIME, many doctors and nurses said they’re “afraid of spreading the disease to their families, frustrated about a lack of adequate protective gear and a sense they can’t do enough for their patients, exhausted as hours have stretched longer without a clear end in sight, and, most of all, deeply sad for their dying patients, many of whom are slipping away without their loved ones at their side.” Dr. Albert Wu, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, “says that evidence from the 2003 SARS outbreak suggests that failing to support healthcare workers in a crisis…can erode their ‘wellbeing and resilience,’ ultimately leading to chronic burnout.”
Related Links:
— “‘We Carry That Burden.’ Medical Workers Fighting COVID-19 Are Facing a Mental Health Crisis, “Tara Law, TIME, April 10, 2020