Covid-19 and women

Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, women did nearly threequarters of the world's unpaid work. As institutional supports, including inperson school and community-based care for children, the elderly, and the disabled vanished early in the pandemic, many women's caregiving responsibilities increased. In some cases, opportunities for paid employment disappeared due to layoffs and furloughs, while in others, paid work was no longer possible without access to the missing institutional supports. Either way, access to needed supports-financial, practical, and social-was diminished. The lapse of needed supports also had severe impacts on subgroups of women, including pregnant and post-partum women. A range of considerations-vaccine safety, social interaction and infection risk, disease severity-have posed serious challenges for pregnant and post-partum women. Across the board, women's need for continuous access to better social, financial, and practical supports at home, in the community, and in the workplace was made even more evident by the COVID-19 pandemic. © 2023 The authors.

Impacts of the COVID-19 response on the academic public health workforce

Little attention has been given to the mental and physical health impacts of COVID-19 on the academic public health workforce. Academic public health is an important support mechanism for public health practice, providing expertise and workforce training, conducting research, disseminating evidence-based scientific information to both public health and lay audiences, and serving as a supplementary workforce when additional resources are needed. These roles become more important during a public health emergency, particularly during a prolonged public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result of the COVID-19 response, the roles of academic public health have expanded to include developing and implementing contact tracing, surveillance, testing, and vaccination programs for universities and their surrounding communities, all while continuing to prepare students and support the public health practice workforce in their ongoing efforts. As in other responder groups, this has resulted in significant mental health effects and burnout among public health academicians. The authors suggest important steps that can be taken to improve the resilience of the academic public health workforce and to support their contributions during prolonged public health emergencies. © 2023 The authors.

Mental health impacts on other essential workers

The stressors, and subsequent mental health sequelae, associated with being a part of the frontline, patient-facing healthcare response to the COVID-19 pandemic have been clear from the very start of the pandemic. However, a broader group of workers, perhaps typically not considered to be part of the frontlines of a public health emergency response, have also been deemed essential to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Protective service workers, including law enforcement and emergency services, those working in food production, processing, and dietetics, maintenance and environmental service workers, and laboratory workers are among those unable to work from home, yet potentially unaccustomed to the stressors of being an essential workers during a public health emergency. Changes to many systems-including health insurance and other benefits, provision of personal protective equipment, and prioritizations for vaccinations and other pharmaceutical and nonpharmaceutical interventions-are needed going forward to retain and protect essential workers during future public health emergencies. © 2023 The authors.

Lessons from the response

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the measures implemented to control it, collided with another public health emergency-the opioid crisis-with dire consequences. In October of 2017, the Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services declared the opioid crisis a public health emergency. That declaration has been renewed several times, including during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the latest renewal set to go into effect on July 4, 2022. The overlap of individual, environmental, and social risk factors for substance use disorder (SUD) and COVID-19 present major challenges to those working as part of the response to both pandemics. The severity of the implications of this dual pandemic-an estimated 100,000 people in the United States died from a drug overdose during the first year of the pandemic-make this an area of the pandemic response where lessons learned had to be rapidly implemented to save lives. Identifying ways in which those lessons can be expanded to other populations at risk, including those with other pre-existing mental disorders, will be important to reducing the inequitable impacts of the pandemic on mental health. © 2023 The authors.

COVID-19, frontline responders and mental health: A playbook for delivering resilient public health systems post-pandemic

Since the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic health care, public health, first responders, and other essential workers have been engaged in the most extensive emergency response in more than a century, whilst trust in science has been eroded and public health has been politicized. Against this context, the authors in this collection assess the potential mental health impacts, widening disparities, and needed interventions for future resilience of the public health workforce. What actions can be taken now to ensure more resilient systems post-pandemic? Focusing on the impacts of the pandemic on responder health across health care, public health, emergency management, and more, the chapters, written by experts in the field, provide an overview of the mental health impacts of disasters and emergencies on responders more broadly, and also highlight the inequitable impacts of the response among sectors of the workforce and populations who are socially or physically vulnerable. Closing with recommendations for changes that are needed to address gaps in capacity, COVID-19, Frontline Responders and Mental Health makes a crucial contribution to building the evidence base and disseminating best practices to ensure recommendations become standard practices in the future. Realizing the harsh potential realities such as a shortage of qualified workers and questions around funding and workforce development needed to ensure preparedness for the next public health emergency, this playbook for delivering resilient public health systems post-pandemic provides a timely oversight for future resilience. © 2023 Jennifer A. Horney.

Impacts of the COVID-19 response on frontline healthcare workers

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the responses to it that were required from frontline healthcare providers and others working in healthcare settings including environmental, clerical, and security staff, has challenged our healthcare systems in unprecedented ways. The threats to the financial, physical, and psychological well-being of healthcare professionals-many of whom entered the field due at least in part to a deep commitment to caring for and helping others-will have profound and long-lasting personal and professional impacts. Early in the pandemic response, healthcare professionals knew little about the risks they, their patients, and their loved ones faced from COVID-19 as they operated under crisis standards of care and without adequate supplies of personal protective equipment. As the pandemic response progressed, the lack of clear, science-based guidance, and the politicization of the pandemic presented new medical, ethical, and moral dilemmas. New psychological support mechanisms, including crisis counseling and evidence-based interventions, are needed for all workers in healthcare settings, regardless of their job role. © 2023 The authors.

Anxiety and depression among public health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Introduction: The public health workforce plays an essential role in the response to disasters and emergencies. Little is known about the prevalence of anxiety and depression among the public health emergency preparedness workforce responding to COVID-19 or the potential for social support to protect public health workers from adverse outcomes. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted among a sample of the public health workforce participating in the response to COVID-19. Prevalence ratios (PRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using Poisson regression with robust standard errors. Results: Overall, 39.6 percent (140 of 345) of respondents reported anxiety and 29.4 percent (104 of 345) reported depression. The prevalence of anxiety and depression was higher among those who worked more hours (PR = 1.5;95% CI: 1.2, 2.0) and days (PR = 1.3;95% CI: 0.9, 1.8) per week. Anxiety was 40 percent more prevalent (PR = 1.4;95% CI: 0.8, 2.4) among those with between 1 and 4 years of work experience, while depression was 60 percent more prevalent (PR = 1.6;95% CI: 0.8, 3.1) among those with 5 to 9 years of experience. Compared to those with a bachelor’s degree, those with a master’s degree reported 30 percent more anxiety (PR = 1.3;95% CI: 0.9, 1.9). Having at least three sources of social support related to comfort and caring reduced the prevalence of depression among those working the most hours per week (PR = 1.5;1.1, 2.3 compared to PR = 2.0;95% CI: 0.9, 4.5). Economic and practical support was more consistently protective, with a reduced prevalence of anxiety and depression among those working the most hours per week, days per week, and those with more education when at least three sources of support were reported. Discussion: Anxiety and depression symptoms and diagnoses have been associated with burnout and suicide among frontline disaster responders. The public health workforce on the frontlines of the COVID-19 emergency response has high rates of depression and anxiety, which must be addressed through robust individual- and organizational-level supports. © 2022 Weston Medical Publishing. All rights reserved.

Public Health Workforce Burnout in the COVID-19 Response in the U.S

While the health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on frontline health care workers have been well described, the effects of the COVID-19 response on the U.S. public health workforce, which has been impacted by the prolonged public health response to the pandemic, has not been adequately characterized. A cross-sectional survey of public health professionals was conducted to assess mental and physical health, risk and protective factors for burnout, and short- and long-term career decisions during the pandemic response. The survey was completed online using the Qualtrics survey platform. Descriptive statistics and prevalence ratios (95% confidence intervals) were calculated. Among responses received from 23 August and 11 September 2020, 66.2% of public health workers reported burnout. Those with more work experience (1-4 vs. <1 years: prevalence ratio (PR) = 1.90, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.08-3.36;5-9 vs. <1 years: PR = 1.89, CI = 1.07-3.34) or working in academic settings (vs. practice: PR = 1.31, CI = 1.08-1.58) were most likely to report burnout. As of September 2020, 23.6% fewer respondents planned to remain in the U.S. public health workforce for three or more years compared to their retrospectively reported January 2020 plans. A large-scale public health emergency response places unsustainable burdens on an already underfunded and understaffed public health workforce. Pandemic-related burnout threatens the U.S. public health workforce's future when many challenges related to the ongoing COVID-19 response remain unaddressed.