Comparing the effects of reduced social contact on psychosocial wellbeing before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal survey from two Norwegian counties.

PURPOSE: To determine changes to people's social contact during COVID-19, and whether reduced social contact was associated with changes to psychosocial wellbeing. METHODS: Questionnaire data were collected from a sample of adult respondents (18 years or more) in two Norwegian counties participating pre-COVID-19 (September 2019-February 2020; n = 20,196) and at two time points during COVID-19 (June [Mid] and November/December [Late] 2020; n = 11,953 and n = 10,968, respectively). The main outcome measures were participants' self-reported changes to social contact, loneliness, psychological distress, and life satisfaction. RESULTS: The proportion of respondents reporting less social contact due to COVID-19 decreased from 62% in Mid-2020 to 55% in Late-2020. Overall, reported psychological wellbeing remained unchanged or improved from pre-COVID-19 to Mid-2020. From Mid-2020 to Late-2020, however, a reduction in psychological wellbeing was observed. Poorer psychological wellbeing was found for those with less social contact during the pandemic compared with people reporting unchanged social contact. This effect increased over time and was observed for all age groups at Late-2020. At Mid-2020, the importance of change in social contact for change in psychological wellbeing was greatest among young adults (< 30 years), while no significant differences were found for the oldest age group. CONCLUSION: The association between COVID-19-era changes to social contact and loneliness, psychological distress, and life satisfaction is complex and appears to be age-dependent. Future studies should consider the quality of social contact and cultural contexts in which social restrictions are imposed.

Use of Health Services and Support Resources by Immediate Family Members Bereaved by Suicide: A Scoping Review.

The knowledge on health service use, systematic follow-up, and support for families bereaved by suicide remains scarce. This scoping review includes studies from 2010 to March 2022 that investigate the follow-up and support offered by health services, peer support services, and other resources available (e.g., internet-based resources) for families bereaved by suicide. We followed the scoping review framework provided by the Johanna Briggs Institute and performed a double-blinded screening process using Covidence. Data were extracted by four researchers and a thematic analysis was performed to summarize the results. The PRISMA Extension for Scoping reviews was used for reporting results. Of 2385 studies screened by title, 190 by abstract, and 93 by full-text reading, we included 63 original articles of which 24, 29 and 10 were quantitative, qualitative, or mixed-methods studies, respectively. The review shows that we have some knowledge about the need for, and experiences with, health services and support resources for immediate family members bereaved by suicide, but a lack of knowledge about their help-seeking behaviour, patient pathways, systematic follow-up, coordination between services, and long-term outcomes. We need more longitudinal observational studies of health service use and patient trajectories for people bereaved by suicide.

Follow-up regimes for sick-listed employees: A comparison of nine north-western European countries.

The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the importance of social protection systems, including income security, when health problems arise. The aims of this study are to compare the follow-up regimes for sick-listed employees across nine European countries, and to conduct a qualitative assessment of the differences with respect to burden and responsibility sharing between the social protection system, employers and employees. The tendency highlighted is that countries with shorter employer periods of sick-pay typically have stricter follow-up responsibility for employers because, in practice, they become gatekeepers of the public sickness benefit scheme. In Germany and the UK, employers have few requirements for follow-up compared with the Nordic countries because they bear most of the costs of sickness absence themselves. The same applies in Iceland, where employers carry most of the costs and have no obligation to follow up sick-listed employees. The situation in the Netherlands is paradoxical: employers have strict obligations in the follow-up regime even though they cover all the costs of the sick-leave themselves. During the pandemic, the majority of countries have adjusted their sick-pay system and increased coverage to reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19 because employees are going to work sick or when they should self-quarantine, except for the Netherlands and Belgium, which considered that the current schemes were already sufficient to reduce that risk.

What is known about the health service use and follow-up of immediate family members bereaved by suicide? Scoping review protocol.

INTRODUCTION: Suicide remains a major public health issue around the world. People bereaved by suicide are a vulnerable group who are at considerable risk of developing mental and physical health problems, such as complicated grief, post-traumatic stress disorder or cardiovascular disease. Many unanswered questions remain, in particular, in terms of their use of healthcare services. This protocol describes how we aim to systematically scope the existing literature on the professional follow-up and health service use by families bereaved by suicide. The scoping review will help to identify research gaps in the literature and aid in the planning and commission of future research. We will provide a summary of research findings. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: We will use the scoping review framework provided by the Joanna Briggs Institute. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews will be used as a guide for reporting our results. We plan to conduct an extensive literature search using relevant health-related databases (MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO and CINAHL) and Web of Science. Two independent reviewers will screen the articles in a two-stage process: (1) titles and abstracts and (2) full-text documents. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This scoping review will identify and consider only previously published research. Hence, no ethical approval is considered necessary. We will disseminate the results in a scientific journal and at conferences, as well as through user organisations for people bereaved by suicide and social media.