Coping with COVID: International C-L Psychiatry Perspectives on Population and Individual Level Supports for Health Care Workers in Hospitals and Community Settings

Frontline healthcare workers (HCWs) are at increased risk of experiencing psychological distress and negative mental health outcomes during COVID-19. Given the liaison and systems-focused approaches of C-L psychiatrists, it is imperative for C-L psychiatry teams to have effective models for supporting HCWs across range of settings. Moreover, recovery from COVID-19 will likely require ongoing implementation of services to further prevent and treat mental health complications experienced by HCWs.

This symposium summarizes four innovative international approaches to supporting HCWs and their teams across a range of settings including hospital-based, community and rural/underserved areas. Each presentation will provide case examples and summarize the literature, including the presenter’s own published or current data on program impact. Participants will learn through case discussions and reflective questions during presentations.

Sanjeev Sockalingam will moderate the session and provide a brief overview on the distress and mental health impact of COVID-19 on HCWs.

Kathleen Sheehan will present on the implementation of UHN CARES (Coping and Resilience for Employees and Staff), which is a modified stepped-care model to support hospital-based HCWs with psychological and psychiatric symptoms. The model includes self-management resources ( >2000 page views), group support, and individual psychological and psychiatric services. To date, individual support has been provided to over 100 people, the majority experiencing moderate-to-severe symptoms. A mixed-method program evaluation has shown a high level of satisfaction and quality of care.

Michael Sharpe will describe the challenges of rapidly implementing an organization wide strategy for staff support in Oxford University Hospitals in the UK, from March 2020 when the pandemic struck. The approach aimed to enhance staff resilience by strengthening teams and to support individuals when needed. The challenges of implementing this successful approach, of managing multiple potential distracting offers of external help and of guiding hospital communication narratives during this crisis period will be discussed.

Janet Ellis will present on the STEADY (Social Support, Tracking Distress, Education And Discussion CommunitY) Program, which is an innovative, multi-pronged, evidence-informed, mental wellness program, at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre (SHSC) in Toronto. She will discuss how STEADY was delivered to HCWs across 10 units during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of a hospital-wide quality improvement initiative and share its outcomes.

Sanjeev Sockalingam will present data on the rapid implementation of a systems-based multi-modal intervention to support the mental health and well-being of HCWs in Ontario, Canada. The interventions included an online hub of mental health self-care t resources ( >600,000 views); a national virtual tele-education and community of practice support program (Project ECHO Coping with COVID-19) reaching nearly 1000 HCWs in hospital (Sockalingam S et al. 2020), community and under-served settings, and a direct referral provincial network for HCWs to access timely mental health services.