Volume 32, Issue 2 pp. 420-445
Review Article

The impact of COVID-19 on the mental health workforce: A rapid review

Kaitlyn M. Crocker BSc, BPsycHons

Corresponding Author

Kaitlyn M. Crocker BSc, BPsycHons

Department of Mental Health, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Correspondence: Kaitlyn M. Crocker, Department of Mental Health, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, PO Box 2900, Fitzroy, Vic. 3065, Australia. Email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
Inge Gnatt BDance, GradDipPsych, BPsycHons

Inge Gnatt BDance, GradDipPsych, BPsycHons

Department of Mental Health, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Centre for Mental Health, Faculty of Health, Arts & Design, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia

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Darren Haywood BSc, BPsycHons

Darren Haywood BSc, BPsycHons

Department of Mental Health, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

School of Population Health, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

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Ingrid Butterfield FRANZCP, MBBS

Ingrid Butterfield FRANZCP, MBBS

School of Population Health, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

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Ravi Bhat MBBS, DPM, MD, FRANZCP, Cert Adv Tr POA

Ravi Bhat MBBS, DPM, MD, FRANZCP, Cert Adv Tr POA

Department of Rural Health, University of Melbourne, Shepparton, Victoria, Australia

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Anoop Raveendran Nair Lalitha MBBS, DPM, MD, FRANZCP

Anoop Raveendran Nair Lalitha MBBS, DPM, MD, FRANZCP

Department of Mental health, Grampians Area Mental Health & well-being Services, Ballarat, Victoria, Australia

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Zoe M. Jenkins

Zoe M. Jenkins

Department of Mental Health, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

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David J. Castle MSc, MD, FRCPsych, FRANZCP

David J. Castle MSc, MD, FRCPsych, FRANZCP

Department of Mental Health, St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Centre for Complex Interventions, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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First published: 02 December 2022
Citations: 9

Zoe M.Jenkins, David J. Castle joint senior authors.

Authorship statement: Authors K.C, I.G. and Z.J. designed the study and wrote the protocol. K.C. and I.G. conducted the literature search and screened all papers. K.C. conducted data extraction and analysis. K.C. wrote the first draft of the manuscript and all authors contributed to and have approved the final manuscript.

Declaration of conflict of interest: The author(s) report no conflicts of interest in relation to this work.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic led to significant adaptations to healthcare. Provision of mental healthcare in a changing environment presented healthcare workers with unique challenges and demands, including changes in workload and expectations. To inform current and future healthcare service responses, and adaptations, the current review aimed to collate and examine the impact of the pandemic on mental healthcare workers (MHWs). We conducted a rapid systematic review to examine the overall impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on MHWs. Searches were conducted in Ovid Medline and PsycInfo and restricted to articles published from 2020. Inclusion criteria specified articles written in English, published in peer-reviewed journals, and that examined any outcome of the impact of COVID-19 on MHWs; 55 articles fulfilled these criteria. Outcomes were categorized into ‘work-related outcomes’ and ‘personal outcomes’. Mental healthcare workers worldwide experienced a range of work-related and personal adversities during the pandemic. Key work-related outcomes included increased workload, changed roles, burnout, decreased job satisfaction, telehealth challenges, difficulties with work-life balance, altered job performance, vicarious trauma and increased workplace violence. Personal outcomes included decreased well-being, increased psychological distress and psychosocial difficulties. These outcomes differed between inpatient, outpatient and remote settings. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered the delivery of mental healthcare and MHWs experienced both work-related and personal adversities during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the continuation of changes introduced to healthcare in the initial stages of the pandemic, it will be important to maintain efforts to monitor negative outcomes and ensure supports for MHWs, going forward.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.