Psychological distress of mental health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: A comparison with the general population in high- and low-incidence regions

Objective: Despite their essential role during this health crisis, little is known about the psychological distress of mental health workers (MHW).

Method: A total of 616 MHW and 658 workers from the general population (GP) completed an online survey including depressive, anxiety, irritability, loneliness, and resilience measures.

Results: Overall, MHW had fewer cases with above cut-off clinically significant depression (19% MHW vs. 27%) or anxiety (16% MHW vs. 29%) than the GP. MHW in high-incidence regions of COVID-19 cases displayed the same levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms than the GP and higher levels compared to MHW from low-incidence regions. MHW in high-incidence regions presented higher levels of irritability and lower levels of resilience than the MHW in low-incidence regions. Moreover, MHW in high-incidence regions reported more feelings of loneliness than all other groups.

Conclusion: Implications for social and organizational preventive strategies to minimize the distress of MHW in times of crisis are discussed.