Mental health of helping proffesionals during the COVID-19 pandemic

Cilj ovog rada je opisati stanje mentalnog zdravlja profesionalnih pomagača tijekom razdoblja pandemije COVID-19. U radu je napravljena kritička analiza većeg broja istraživanja provedenih na temu mentalnog zdravlja djelatnika pomagačkih profesija, koji uključuju socijalne radnike, zdravstvene djelatnike, njegovatelje te djelatnike palijativne skrbi te je u fokusu rada pojava stresa, anksioznosti, depresije te profesionalnog izgaranja kod istih tijekom trajanja pandemije COVID-19. Za profesionalne pomagače, novonastala situacija izazvana pojavom virusa SARS-CoV-2 značila je suočavanje s visokom razinom stresa, povećanim opsegom posla i radnom preopterećenošću, što je dovelo do pojave problema mentalnog zdravlja, profesionalnog stresa i sve većeg izgaranja stručnjaka pomagačkih profesija, koji su bili u najvećem riziku kad je u pitanju mentalno zdravlje. Može se reći kako je razdoblje pandemije bilo razdoblje iscrpljujuće krize, čija se obilježja i načini suočavanja nalaze u ovom radu. Istraživanja su pokazala prisutnost veće razine stresa, anksioznosti i profesionalnog izgaranja te su najčešći stresori i čimbenici povezani sa pojavom problema mentalnog zdravlja tijekom pandemije bili su neizvjesnost, rad s oboljelim osobama, strah od zaraze bližnjih, mlađa dob, dulje smjene i sl. Mnogima je snažan rizični faktor predstavljao nedostatak podrške bližnjih i podrške na radnom mjestu. S obzirom na izloženost radu u vrlo stresnim uvjetima pandemije, djelatnicima pomagačkih profesija potrebno je osigurati adekvatnu profesionalnu pomoć te je u radu pozornost posvećena superviziji kao načinu profesionalne pomoći te strategijama samopomoći.The aim oft this paper is to describe the state of mental health of the professional helpers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper presents a critical analysis of a number of research conducted on the topic of mental health of proffesional helpers, which include social workers, healthcare workers, caregivers and palliative care workers, and the fokus of this paper is the occurrence of stress, anxiety, depression professionalbournout among them during the COVID-19 pandemic. For professional helpers, the new situation caused by the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 meant coping with high levels of stress, increased workload and work overload, which led to a number of mental health problems, professional stres and increasing burnout of proffesional helpers, that were at greatest risk when it came to mental health. It can be said that the period oft he pandemic was the period of „crisis fatigue“, and its characteristics and coping strategies are found in this paper. Reasearch has shown the presence of higher levels of stress, anxiety and professional bournout and the most common stressors and factors associated with the occurrence of mental health problems were uncertainty, working with COVID-19 patients, fear of infecting their loved ones, younger age, longer shifts etc. For many people, a strong risk factor was lack of support by their loved ones and support int he workplace. Given the exposure to work in very stressful pandemic conditions, it is necessary to provide adequate professional help to professional helpers. Also, this paper focuses on a supervision as a method of professional help and on selfcare strategies