MHM Magazine

The Covid-19 pandemic has sparked a rise in mental health disorders worldwide, with frontline healthcare workers among the most affected, yet those but who are more likely to suffer in silence than seek help for their own symptoms of anxiety, depression, stress and burnout. The Healthcare Workers Care Network (HWCN) found that 82% of South African doctors, nurses and allied health professionals using its counselling services believe there is a stigma attached to healthcare workers asking for help with their own mental health. The network was set up early in the pandemic by a number of healthcare professional bodies*, anticipating the added stresses on healthcare workers and aiming to provide mental health support through a 24-hour helpline and online counselling, individual and group support, and training. The services have reached almost 5 000 healthcare workers since April 2020, with an average of 175 calls to the helpline per month. A recent survey of healthcare workers who used the services revealed high levels of reluctance to seek help for mental health challenges, and the reasons why. For 80% of the healthcare workers, fear of judgement by colleagues, managers and their profession, was the main reason for being unwilling or delaying finding support for their mental health concerns. They fear being seen as incompetent, weak and unfit to do their jobs because of expectations that healthcare workers should be more resilient and better-equipped than the general public to deal with work stress and manage their own mental health. Expectations that healthcare workers should be able to fix themselves are unrealistic, placing health professionals at risk, as well as their patients and the healthcare system as a whole. With a third of South Africans experiencing mental illness at some point in their lifetimes, and mental disorders the leading cause of disability, it’s illogical to think that healthcare workers are exempt from mental health challenges. Despite this, the stigma attached to mental health is magnified in the healthcare sector amid intense pressure to deliver, be resilient, super- human even, and a fear of showing any sign of weakness. Healthcare workers who avoid seeking help are at risk of self- medicating, potentially leading to substance abuse and suicide. Healthcare workers are our first responders in a crisis like the pandemic, and they will be our guides and community allies on the road to recovery as the pandemic ends. We need to ensure that we support their mental health, wellbeing and resilience in order to ensure our health system is strong, robust and robust coming out of the pandemic and prepared for the next crisis. The respondents in the HWCN survey – a combination of doctors, nurses, support staff and allied professionals such as counsellors and social workers, in both the public and private sectors, spoke of expectations that they should be always in control and that their training should equip them to look after their own health. Many commented that the perception of “How can you help others if you cannot help yourself?” made them reluctant to open up to HEALTHCARE WORKERS FEAR MENTAL HEALTH STIGMA EDITORIAL By Dr Antoinette Miric Psychiatrist SASOP member National Convenor of Healthcare Workers Care Network Issue 2 | 2022 | MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS | 1 MHM