Mental health care offered to NCRHA staff

ALMOST nine months into the covid19 battle, mental health care is being advocated by health professionals.

In keeping with this agenda, the North Central Regional Authority (NCRHA) has established a Mental Health Care programme to support its workers on the frontline.

The NCRHA said at any point in time work can be stressful, and it has been globally recognised that there is an “urgent need to increase investment in services for mental health or risk a massive increase in mental health conditions.”

It said before the pandemic, the NCRHA led a Stress Relief Centre for staff, where those needing assistance could seek help without referrals or prerequisite criteria. This service was later extended to the public.

Head of Psychiatric Services at the NCRHA Prof Gerard Hutchinson said the onset of covid19 had triggered the need for more direct support than what was initially offered to its staff.

He said, “Because we recognised the mental health issues that staff might face in general, and then this was magnified due to covid19, we acknowledged that the services we were offering would need to be extended.

“Services in general, depend on people coming to access them, but what we are now doing (it) for staff at our various sites – Couva Hospital, Caura Hospital, Arima Hospital, and Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex. We are going to them.”

Hutchinson said the mobile team comprised seven psychologists and six social workers, who make scheduled daily visits to the various NCRHA institutions. During the visits staff discuss their personal and professional concerns.

“We engage persons at all levels within the facility such as doctors, nurses, ward maids, patient escorts, stores workers, the entire range of staff, anyone in the facility. We meet and speak with them to hear what are their issues and concerns.

“In doing that we developed a model of group sessions, and we have been able to zero in on what may be affecting them in general, as well as specifics to covid19, and that is on the first level,” Hutchinson said.

He explained that group sessions have allowed for pressing matters to be addressed which then branch off into individual sessions, which has given way to personalised sessions and treatment.

“Further, coming out of the personalised sessions, staff members who may be in difficult situations, for whatever reasons, they may have experienced a trauma with the death of a colleague, or something very personal at home – we then identify resources to get them through or past that existing reality,” Hutchinson said.

CEO of the NCRHA Davlin Thomas said so far over 100 people have benefited from the group sessions.

“It is a holistic approach to engaging the covid19 pandemic. The wellbeing of our staff is paramount. We deal with issues that affect them, so that they in turn can continue to be effective caregivers.”

“Our teams of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers and mental health nurses, are the scaffolding that will support the holistic wellbeing of our staff and patients during a time when resilience is critical to the continuity of the system,” Thomas said.