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Opinion | What Wuhan’s frontline medical workers can teach the world about the Covid-19 mental health battle
- The war against Covid-19 has left many Chinese health care workers suffering from depression, anxiety, insomnia and distress
- Support from coworkers and the wider community provided a lifeline during the darkest of times
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The recent suicides of health care workers in New York brought attention to the Covid-19 mental health crisis emerging in the US and Europe. Yet in Wuhan, ground zero of the global pandemic, health care workers’ reports of burnout, trauma and emotional distress were already common in February.
Emerging research from China shows that frontline health care workers, especially women, had high levels of depression, anxiety, insomnia and distress. As we see many of the challenges in Wuhan are being replicated elsewhere, the lessons learned must be used to inform strategies to support frontline medical workers in other parts of the world.
By analysing frontline experiences in Wuhan, we have identified three major sources of mental distress among health care workers. The traumatic experiences and mental health needs of frontline health care workers around the world require immediate attention.
The narrative of “fighting a war” has been salient throughout. Frontline health care workers often referred to themselves as comrades who fought to win the Covid-19 battle and survived near-death experiences together. While this collective narrative forged a “spirit of unity”, the shift to wartime footing occurred so suddenly that health care workers were caught unaware.
Frontline doctors and nurses reported that they collapsed when suddenly faced with a deluge of patients. Many health care workers expressed feelings of frustration, fear, anxiety, despair and exhaustion due to sleep deprivation. The lack of protective gear led to greater mental distress.
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At the early stage of Wuhan’s shutdown, some health care workers even lacked basic necessities such as proper food; hygiene products for women were particularly in short supply. Moreover, frontline health care professionals could diagnose Covid-19, but not offer effective treatment.
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