Impact and support for nursing home caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic (Preprint)

Abstract

UNSTRUCTURED The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has deeply impacted healthcare organizations and has exposed healthcare workers to concerns about mental health and psychological adjustment. Nursing home caregivers (NHCGs) are among those most exposed to these risks because they deal with vulnerable older adults. Worldwide, many support interventions have been implemented in an effort to mitigate the psychosocial impact of this major health crisis on healthcare workers. However, specific data for NHCGs are scarce. The present viewpoint covers the support systems for NHCGs that have been implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The guidelines on mitigating the psychosocial effects of COVID-19 outbreaks did not differ greatly as a function of the type of healthcare worker or the sector of activity. To the best of our knowledge, only one program (at Tours University Hospital (Tours, France)) has been specifically developed for NHCGs. The program is based on weekly debriefing sessions and is intended to reduce the psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 epidemic. Studies conducted in acute geriatric units (rather than nursing homes and long-term care facilities, as in the present work) have highlighted a worsening in mental health among staff and have prompted calls for the implementation of dedicated mitigation measures. The importance of mitigating the psychosocial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is widely accepted, and a large number of guidelines and resources are available. However, very few of these are sector- or carer-specific. Hence, specific interventions for NHCGs should be developed. It is important to encourage local initiatives, such as the multidisciplinary support system for NHCGs implemented at Tours University Hospital during and after the COVID-19 crisis.