Mental Health Care for COVID-19 Health Care Workers is a group of volunteer mental health professionals offering a dedicated mental health service to clinical and administrative managers, unit heads, and clinical team leaders in Gauteng hospitals and clinics.
Health care workers (HCWs) on the front line who are directly involved in the diagnosis, treatment, and care of patients with the Corona virus are at risk of developing psychological distress and other mental health symptoms. International research highlights significant adverse psychological reactions in HCWs to both previous epidemics and especially the current Covid19 pandemic.
Our psychologists and psychiatrists are able to provide coaching and consultations to team leaders and managers to help them cope with their own, and their team members’ stress levels during this difficult time.
We are available to provide information, to discuss group support, psychological containment and strategies to deal with staff and patients’ distressing emotional states during this time. We also have a list of colleagues who have volunteered free online or telephonic counselling sessions for individuals, should they need psychological ‘first aid’.
We are collaborating with the Psychological Society of South Africa, the South African Depression and Anxiety Group and the South African Society of Psychiatrists (Gauteng branch) and other mental health groupings.
Our team members are Dr Antoinette Miric, Prof Rita Thom, Dr Thriya Ramasar, Dr Nazeema Ariefdien, Dr Alicia Porter, Dr Pevashnee Naicker, Dr Joanna Taylor, Judith Ancer, Anna Schmidt-Ehmcke, Batetshi Matenge, Alicia Vaccari, Zamo Mbele, Lauren Gower and Tina Sideris.