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Identifying mental health needs and best practice for psychological support in frontline healthcare workers during and after the COVID-19 outbreak and in future pandemics.

COVID-19 presents an unprecedented global public health challenge and front line workers (FLWs) providing direct care to COVID-19 patients will shoulder a particularly difficult burden. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has identified the importance of promoting the psychological well-being of FLWs during this pandemic.
Existing guidance prepared by professional bodies (e.g. Psychological Society of Ireland, British Psychological Society) typically pertain to events such as terrorist attacks and natural disasters. However, COVID-19 presents a unique challenge as it is protracted, global in reach, and unprecedented in scale. We simply do not know what psychological supports are required by FLWs during each stage of a pandemic of this nature. Problems with persistent distress may well emerge later.
This project seeks to identify best-practice guidance for mental health specialists and managers tasked with supporting FLWs struggling with psychological distress due to the COVID-19 crisis, at the various stages of the pandemic.
This will be achieved by means of 6 distinct work packages using mixed methods: (1) Needs assessment based on experience of national FLWs
(2) Experience of FLWs abroad
(3) Analysis of prevalence and levels of distress of FLWs in Ireland
(4) Design of practice guidelines
(5) Face validation of practice guidelines (Delphi study) (6) Quantitative re-assessment of extent and nature of distress after six months.
The project team includes psychologists, a psychiatrist and ICU doctors based both in Ireland and in Italy, where the pandemic has already peaked, and from whom we can learn about the support needs of frontline workers facing one of the highest mortality rates globally.
By using a multi-method, iterative process we will rapidly prepare best practice principles and guidelines for supporting FLWs with acute and persistent distress at each phase of the pandemic. The results can help to inform support efforts, and have relevance for future pandemics.