ArticleThe South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa2022
Developing a healthcare worker psychological preparedness support programme for the COVID-19 outbreak.
Article in The South African journal of psychiatry : SAJP : the journal of the Society of Psychiatrists of South Africa, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 9 citations in OpenAlex.
- Interventions to Support the Mental Health of Frontline Healthcare Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Pooled it
- Identifying the effective strategies in reducing the effects of mental health issues caused by COVID-19 pandemic in healthcare providers: a systematic review.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- Addressing Health Care Workers' Mental Health: A Systematic Review of Evidence-Based Interventions and Current Resources.American journal of public health · 2024Pooled it
- Assessment of healthcare worker preparedness and health literacy for Marburg virus disease in Nigeria: A cross-sectional study.Southern African journal of infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Addressing the mental health needs of healthcare professionals in Africa: a scoping review of workplace interventions.Global mental health (Cambridge, England) · 2025Review
- A cross-sectional study on the mental health of healthcare workers treating COVID-19 positive patients in Gauteng, South Africa.The Pan African medical journal · 2025Article
- Psychological Preparedness of Psychologists during the COVID-19 Emergency: Are There Any Individual Differences?Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Stress and coping in the face of COVID-19: a qualitative inquiry into early pandemic experiences and psychological well-being of health workers in Burkina Faso, Senegal and The Gambia.Health policy and planning · 2023Article
- Review
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak caused worldwide disruptions to healthcare systems. The emerging evidence indicates that mental health problems have consequently become an occupational hazard in frontline healthcare workers. Aim: We aimed to develop a psychological preparedness training (PPT) programme to support frontline health workers in three resource-limited hospitals in South Africa dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak and to evaluate its effectiveness using an audit tool. We established a theoretical framework and goals for a psychological preparedness programme to support healthcare workers at the study sites. Setting: Data were collected at the Dora Nginza Hospital, Nelson Mandela Academic Hospital and Elizabeth Donkin Hospital. Methods: We employed an observational, descriptive, and cross-sectional design. A group psychological intervention was developed and implemented at the three sites in South Africa, from mid-April 2020 over 20 weeks. We collected data using an audit tool to measure healthcare workers' perceptions of the outbreak before and after the intervention. We analysed the data to test for a statistically significant difference between the pre-intervention and post-intervention audit tools. Results: We supported 761 healthcare workers during the 20 weeks of the programme. Statistical analysis showed a significant positive change from pre- to post-intervention measures in perceptions of health worker about the outbreak, their anxiety associated with the outbreak, their ability to control reactions to stress and the perception of their ability to support others. Feedback comments indicated that the programme was beneficial for the majority of those who attended. Conclusion: Health workers who attended the programme reported improvement in stress levels and in perceptions about their ability to cope with the outbreak, as well as in their perceptions of being able to support others.
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