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Submitted by PatientsEngage on 4 October 2020

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the frontline healthcare workers have been feeling stressed and vulnerable. SWAASTHI is a psychosocial helpline provided for professional counseling and emotional support and is a dedicated helpline for frontline health workers. SWAASTHI, a free, anonymous and confidential service, is run by trained and qualified counselors in English and Hindi.

Telephone :9152987824 between Monday and Saturday from 10 am to 06 pm.
Email: swaasthihelpline@tiss.edu

On request, the psychosocial support is available in Marathi, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada languages as well. 

For more details check out http://icallhelpline.org/swaasthi-resources/

Some of the common issues faced by frontline healthcare workers are:

1. Burnout

In this resource, ‘Burnout’ is described as a concept as well as its manifestations, experience,  and underlying mechanisms. The article contextualises the experience of burnout in healthcare providers as an organic outcome of the present pandemic realities. It uses the Stress Continuum Model to explain the aetiology of burnout by tracing the gradual movement of psychophysiological arousal experienced by an individual from  mild to chronic stress. The model delineates four progressively stressful zones leading to higher levels of psychophysiological arousal and eventual burnout. It explains how burnout can also spiral into long-term adverse psycho-physiological and mental illness consequences like  PTSD, substance abuse, depression, and insomnia. Although empirical data suggests that right support can prevent or combat burnout, the article traces the problem of addressing burnout back to the absence of its acknowledgement and recognition by those experiencing it. This is further exacerbated by the fact that under present circumstances, healthcare workers are overburdened with work and have no time to seek the help.

The article suggests simple cognitive, emotional, and behavioural activities that can serve as buffers against burnout. Lastly, it encourages practitioners to reach out to SWAASTHI and ask for the help they need and deserve. 

2. Moral Distress or Moral Injury : 

This article explores the relatively new concept of ‘Moral Injury’, also termed as ‘Moral Distress’. It explains how moral injury results from experiences that an individual has or decisions they have had to make  which contradict their personal or shared values and expectations. For example, concerns about the life and death of another being. It then locates the experiences of moral distress as a real threat being faced by frontline professionals during the time of the covid-19 pandemic as they have been forced into situations wherein such decision making has been an unavoidable responsibility for them. The article identifies certain circumstances that serve as factors that might put the individual at risk for experiencing moral distress, for example  a worry about not being skilled enough or  fearing transmitting the coronavirus, to actual loss, isolation, and burnout. To make the concept more lucid, the article further delineated certain symptoms of moral distress like a negative self concept, loss of hope/faith in the world/religion, loss of sense of meaning and purpose, anxiety, guilt, sadness etc. It also warms how various mental health concerns may arise as a result of experiencing moral distress like sleep disturbances, social withdrawal, apathy,and even  self harm. As its positive thesis, the article propagates a host of preventative and early intervention strategies like positive self care in the form of maintaining healthy routines and habits, positive self talk, mindfulness practices, taking breaks, and seeking support in the form of personal support from family and friends, as well as professional support from colleagues and supervisors. The article also enlists tips for supervisors to encourage positive self care in their teams, for example by initiating peer support programs. Lastly, it encourages practitioners to reach out and ask for the help they need and deserve. It provides an invaluable resource for the same by explaining what Swaasthi is, what it does, and how its services can be availed.

3. Preserving Therapists’ Wellbeing During Covid-19:

This article promotes the psychosocial and physical well being of therapists during the covid-19 pandemic. It explains the importance of this by using the concepts of vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue. Apart from constantly listening to high levels of distress being experienced by their clients, therapists themselves are sailing through the same pandemic and thus have their own distress to tackle as well. Exacerbating their distress are the very real, logistical and practical concerns that the pandemic has brought with it in terms of practicing psychotherapy. Be it taking the sessions online, to trying to modify, innovate, and adapt their modalities to remote counseling, along with various other ethical concerns. The suddenness and unpreparedness that they may have experienced within because of the nature of the pandemic coupled with the helplessness they might experience because of being unable to reach out to those they really wish to help, can cause high levels of distress. In the light of the same, the article explicates certain distress management techniques by emphasising the importance of both, self care and self compassion to promote and uphold physical, emotional, and spiritual well being for and of the therapist. It also highlights the importance of social connectedness within work by maximising supervision opportunities and outside work by connecting with loved ones. Lastly, it encourages practitioners to reach out and ask for the help they need and deserve. It provides an invaluable resource for the same by explaining what Swaasthi is, what it does, and how its services can be availed.

 

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