Investigating the effectiveness of tele-counseling for the mental health of staff in hospitals and COVID-19 clinics: a clinical control trial

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of tele-counseling for the mental health of staff working in hospitals and reference clinics during the COVID-19 outbreak. Methods: In the first stage of the study, using a convenience sampling strategy, 313 staff members working at Iran's hospitals and COVID-19 clinics answered a Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale and the Short Health Anxiety Inventory online. In a second stage, 95 staff members who were willing to participate in the intervention were randomly assigned to the intervention (n = 51) or control (n = 44) groups. The intervention consisted of seven intensive tele-counseling sessions. Results: In the first stage, the percentages of anxiety and depression related to coronavirus were 79.2% and 82.1% and the mean health anxiety score was 17.42. In the intervention phase, anxiety related to coronavirus and to perceived risk of illness (likelihood of illness) were significantly lower in the intervention group in comparison with the control group (p = 0.001). Depression related to coronavirus and anxiety related to the negative consequences of infection were non-significantly reduced in the intervention group compared to the control group (p = 0.08 and 0.12; respectively). Conclusion: Continuous monitoring of the negative psychological impacts on medical staff of outbreaks as well as implementation of appropriate interventions to respond to them should be emphasized in order to improve staff mental health. Clinical trial registration: Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials, IRCT20170611034452N11.

Psychological interventions for healthcare professionals during the COVID‐19 pandemic: A systematic review

“…Ghazanfarpour et al. (2021), proved the effectiveness of WhatsApp tele‐counselling compared to non‐intervention group. Only anxiety related to coronavirus (MD = 1.52, 95% CI = 0.63–2.4, p = 0.001) and anxiety of likelihood to illness (MD = 0.87, 95% CI = −0.11 to 1.87, p = 0.001) significantly decreased compared to non‐intervention group.…”

“…Five studies used web applications to deliver psychological interventions (Fiol‐DeRoque et al., 2021; Ghazanfarpour et al., 2021; Gnanapragasam et al., 2022; Gupta et al., 2021; Otared et al., 2021). Two studies did not show significant differences between groups for the primary outcomes (Fiol‐DeRoque et al., 2021; Gupta et al., 2021).…”

“…The main difference with Gupta et al. (2021) was the control group, without intervention and basic information respectively (Ghazanfarpour et al., 2021; Gupta et al., 2021). The evolution of the pandemic and the arrival of a new normality, could influence these results.…”

“…Another study used tele‐counselling during 7 days for the intervention groups and obtained significantly lower scores for anxiety related to COVID‐19 and likelihood to illness compared to non‐intervention group (Ghazanfarpour et al., 2021). The main difference with Gupta et al.…”

Psychological and Cognitive Effects of Long COVID: A Narrative Review Focusing on the Assessment and Rehabilitative Approach

“…Patients could benefit from tele-therapy or tele-counseling to address emotional and mood disturbances [ 119 ], and some studies [ 120 , 121 , 122 , 123 ] have demonstrated improvement with on-line intervention for older adults with neurodegenerative disease and for caregivers of patients affected by severe acquired brain injury during the COVID-19 era.…”