Work in Mental Health During the COVID-19: Management of Patients at Risk

Abstract

Health professional have been exposed to different stressors during the first two year of the COVID-19 pandemic. This situation may cause emotional symptoms besides influencing on the way they attended their patients. This article aimed to investigate how health professionals care for patients at risk of suicide and have experienced their work in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. By using semi-structured interviewing, participants, from different areas from mental health field, reported their experiences that were analyzed by the technique of qualitative content analyses. The participants pointed out that they had to adapt to a new routine during the pandemic, what involved the services closure, team reduction, increasing of working hours, changings in the current working process, in addition to the risk of being contaminated, themselves or a familiar. All of participants had already lost patients to suicide and a large part of them kept to assisting patients at risk during this period. The risk assessment did not follow any pre-established protocol, but took place together with other professionals, and always in contact with the patients' families. Professionals had greater difficulty in referrals and decision-making, in addition to perceiving themselves more fearful in interventions and feeling more overwhelmed. We discuss the need to research and propose new strategies for intervention targeting mental health of these workers, especially preparing them for public health crisis situations.