MHM Magazine

26 | MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS | Issue 1 | 2022 MHM It’s no secret that healthcare workers globally, and in South Africa as well, face significant daily psychosocial and occupational stress. South African healthcare workers were struggling with burnout and mental health concerns before the COVID-19 pandemic. Early in the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, a group of Johannesburg based individual mental health professionals (psychiatrists and psychologists) collaborated to establish a volunteer-run support network called Mental Health Care for HCW COVID-19 in Gauteng. Prior to the pandemic, there were already initiatives by the South African Medical Association (SAMA), the South African Society of Psychiatrists (SASOP) and the South African Society of Anaesthesiologists (SASA) to promote and protect the wellbeing of doctors. These organizations then joined forces with Mental Health Care for HCW initiative and the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG). Support was also offered by the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA). This initiative has grown into the Healthcare Workers Care Network (HWCN), a national project, with a 24-hour helpline that operates through the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG). The HWCN started with two purposes in mind. • One of the aims was to provide psychoeducational training and support to healthcare workers and their managers. • The second aim of the Healthcare Workers Network was to provide pro-bono easy access to online or telephonic counselling sessions for any healthcare worker. Between April 2020 and January 2022, volunteers from the network provided over 60 hours of free online training and workshops to over 4700 healthcare workers We used the period between April 2020 and June 2020 to educate and prepare as many healthcare workers as possible, and especially those people in management roles, as to how to anticipate and try manage the stresses that being on the frontline of care provision would bring This work was informed by international best practice. Due to the strict lockdown in South Africa in March 2020, the first wave of COVID-19 was delayed until June 2020. During this time, healthcare workers and managers often described feeling in limbo, and we used the sessions to guide participants through anticipatory By Dr Antoinette Miric (psychiatrist) And Judith Ancer (clinical psychologist) THE HEALTHCARE WORKERS CARE NETWORK AN OVERVIEW OF A VITAL SOUTH AFRICAN SERVICE