Why Psychotherapy for Healthcare Providers is Key During the Pandemic

Here are 5 reasons why psychology services for healthcare providers are essential.

One of the most important aspects of understanding the global pandemic crisis caused by the coronavirus is the fact that, although the people most affected by the health (not economic) consequences of this global pandemic are relatively few, they are not evenly distributed throughout the population.

In fact, we know that COVID-19 hits hardest those with chronic health problems and the very old. But beyond this first group of people vulnerable to the virus, there is another group that, although not normally harmed to the point of fearing for their lives, is also suffering greatly during these months: healthcare professionals, mainly doctors and nurses.

In this article we will look at the extent to which during the coronavirus crisis, psychology services for health care workers are essential both for themselves as individuals and for society as a whole. both for themselves as individuals and for society as a whole, taking into account the precarious conditions in which they often have to work (for political reasons rather than those pertaining to their profession).

Psychological therapy for healthcare workers is basic in the face of the pandemic

If something is clear in the world of psychology is that, contrary to what thinkers like René Descartes maintained, there is no radical separation between the mind and the body, for better and for worse.

One of the implications of this is that the physical wear and tear produced by day-to-day work, if it is hard, is also capable of wearing us down mentally.. If we add to this the fact that the work itself includes tasks that are often emotionally charged, the resulting combination can be very difficult to manage in the medium and long term.

In the case of healthcare work, unfortunately, these days both conditions are met: there is a lot of work, many complicated decisions in which there is an obligation to take ethical positions, and in addition there is contact with people who are suffering, and some of whom are even dying.

Of course, professionals in this sector are able to deal with these complicated situations better than the average population, due to a mixture of training over many years of apprenticeship, on the one hand, and a filtering process that is very difficult to pass if you deal very badly with distress and the need to exert yourself. However, there is a limit to everything, and as much as there is a tendency these days to praise the indispensable work of doctors and nurses, this cannot serve as a moral alibi for assuming that they should be able to solve everything on their own. This is where psychotherapy comes in.

Top 5 benefits of psychotherapy for doctors and nurses

These are the main reasons why applied psychology services for healthcare providers are essential during the COVID-19 crisis. In the majority of cases, it is possible to benefit from them through face-to-face therapy and also through online psychological assistance by video call. by video call.

1. It allows anxiety disorders to be treated

Anxiety disorders are among the most frequent psychological disorders in the general population, and their incidence is higher in healthcare professionals. Psychological therapy allows to overcome them effectively, whether they are phobias, generalized anxiety, panic disorder, or others.

2. Helps to manage guilt and low mood.

Having gone through a situation of healthcare collapse, it has become necessary to apply triage methodologies to establish which patients have priority to be attended, many times assuming a high risk of death for those who have to wait.

Going through these experiences on a regular basis can lead to situations of guilt, which sometimes include anxious memories.which sometimes include anxiogenic memories produced by the frustration or anger of patients or their relatives.

Psychotherapy allows working on these memories that are linked to problematic beliefs about oneself; processes such as cognitive restructuring applied in psychotherapy are effective to stop feeling bad. In the same way, it is also possible to prevent and treat the symptoms linked to clinical depression and related disorders. and related disorders.

3. It allows to deal with post-traumatic stress cases

Exposure to unexpected deaths can lead to the development of post-traumatic stress, especially if these losses occur in very difficult circumstances. Therapy helps to prevent the consolidation of the onset of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, and also treats those who already have all the symptoms of this disorder associated with flashbacks and sleeping problems..

4. Helps prevent and treat OCD

The Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is based on the following thoughts or mental images that appear in the consciousness over and over again, in an intrusive manner, triggering an intense distress response that the person feels the need to relieve immediately through the performance of certain "rituals": the compulsions.triggering an intense distress response that the person feels the need to alleviate immediately through the performance of certain "rituals": compulsions.

One of its most frequent variants is the OCD based on the ritual of hand washing. Faced with the distressing idea that their hands are contaminated, those who develop OCD experience serious difficulties in trying not to go and wash them immediately, something that can even produce lesions on their skin as the days go by.

Of course, one of the characteristics of OCD is that, as a disorder, it is made up of irrational and harmful behavior patterns for the person and/or their environment; in the coronavirus crisis it is normal to wash hands a lot, but this habit can create the breeding ground for some people to start to develop an excessive tendency to put one's hands under the faucet constantly..

Psychological intervention helps to prevent the first symptoms of OCD from leading to the consolidation of the disorder, and allows to overcome the problem in cases where OCD has already developed; for this purpose, desensitization techniques, widely used to treat anxiety problems, are usually used.

5. Allows to solve family or couple problems

Problems at work can translate into problems at home, either by the tendency to irritability and moodiness caused by fatigue, as by the lack of dedication to something other than thinking about work. In this regard, it should not be forgotten that psychological intervention takes many forms, and two of them are couple therapy and family therapy.

Are you a health professional looking for psychological therapy?

At Psychologists Majadahonda we offer comprehensive psychological assistance both in person at our center located in Majadahonda and through online therapy, the latter, at a lower cost. In addition, the first session is free, and we offer special advantages (to consult) for health professionals. To see more information about our center or access our contact details, enter this page.

Bibliographic references:

• Miller, L. (2009). Doctors, their mental health and capacity for work. Occupational Medicine, 59(1): pp. 53 - 55.
• Kim, M.S., et al. (2018). Mental disorders among workers in the healthcare industry: 2014 national health insurance data. Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 30: 31.
• Ruitenburg, M.M.; Frings-Dresen, M.H.W. & Sluiter, J.K. (2012). The prevalence of common mental disorders among hospital physicians and their association with self-reported work ability: a cross-sectional study. BMC Health Services Research, 12, Num. art. 292.
• Wicks, R.J. (2005). Overcoming Secondary Stress in Medical and Nursing Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.