Healthcare staff mental health trajectories during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings from the COVID-19 Staff Wellbeing Survey

Julie-Ann Jordan, Ciaran Shannon, Dympna Browne, Emma Carroll, Jennifer Maguire, Keith Kerrigan, Sinead Hannan, Thomas McCarthy, Mark A Tully, Ciaran Mulholland, Kevin F W Dyer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Background

Cross-sectional studies have shown that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the mental health of healthcare staff. However, it is less well understood how working over the long term in successive COVID-19 waves affects staff well-being.

Aims

To identify subpopulations within the health and social care staff workforce with differentiated trajectories of mental health symptoms during phases of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method

The COVID-19 Staff Wellbeing Survey assessed health and social care staff well-being within an area of the UK at four time points, separated by 3-month intervals, spanning November 2020 to August 2021.

Results

Growth mixture models were performed on the depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder longitudinal data. Two class solutions provided the best fit for all models. The vast majority of the workforce were best represented by the low-symptom class trajectory, where by symptoms were consistently below the clinical cut-off for moderate-to-severe symptoms. A sizable minority (13-16%) were categorised as being in the high-symptom class, a group who had symptom levels in the moderate-to-severe range throughout the peaks and troughs of the pandemic. In the depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder models, the high-symptom class perceived communication from their organisation to be less effective than the low-symptom class.

Conclusions

This research identified a group of health service staff who reported persistently high mental health symptoms during the pandemic. This group of staff may well have particular needs in terms of the provision of well-being support services.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere112
Pages (from-to)1-9
Number of pages9
JournalBJPsych Open
Volume9
Issue number4
Early online date22 Jun 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished online - 22 Jun 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was supported by a HSC Research & Development Division, Public Health Agency grant (grant number COM/5602/20) to C.S., J.A.-J. and K.D.

Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Keywords

  • longitudinal
  • trauma
  • healthcare workers
  • Depressive disorders
  • anxiety disorders

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