What have we learned about what works in sustaining mental health care and support services during a pandemic? Transferable insights from the COVID-19 response within the NHS Scottish context

Abstract

Efforts have been made to adapt the delivery of mental health care and support services to the demands of COVID-19. Here we detail the perspectives and experiences of mental health workers (MHWs), in relation to what they found helpful when adapting mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic and responding to its demands. Individual interviews were conducted with MHWs (n = 30) during the third COVID-19 lockdown. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and managed using NVIVO. Qualitative data was analyzed using an inductive thematic approach. Three themes emphasized the importance of: (1) ‘self-care and peer support (checking in with each other)’, (2) ‘team cohesion and collaboration’ and (3) ‘visible and supportive management and leadership (new ways of working)’. Our findings emphasize the importance of individual, team and systems-based support in helping MHWs maintain their own wellbeing, whilst adapting and responding to the challenges in providing mental health care and support during this pandemic. Guidance and direction from management, with adaptive leadership in providing sustained, efficient, and equitable delivery of mental healthcare, is essential. Our findings support future policy, research and mental health practice developments through sharing important salutogenic lessons learned and transferable insights which may help with preparedness for future pandemics.

Keywords:

• Mental health
• staff wellbeing
• COVID-19
• help-seeking
• support systems

Acknowledgements

All authors would like to thank the NHS mental health workers that took time to engage in the interviews for this research.

Ethics approval

Ethical approval was granted by the University Ethics Committee, University of Strathclyde. This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. The study was granted ethical approval from the University Ethics Committee (reference: UEC20/81).

Informed consent

All participants provided informed consent to participate in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contribution

All authors contributed to the study conception, design and analysis. Material preparation and data collection were performed by all authors. Data analysis write up was performed by Heather Archbold and Nicola Cogan. All authors contributed to the final manuscript, which all authors read and approved.

Data availability statement

As the study involved in-depth qualitative interviews with potentially identifiable information we would not be in a position to share the data. It can be made available to reviewers upon request.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported with funding from the Scottish Government.