Providing patient care during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with high
levels of mental health symptoms among US health care workers. This study
measured how many had them, and how many did anything about it.
The gap
| Reported mental health symptoms at levels meeting diagnostic criteria, September 2022–May 2023 | 26% |
| Sought mental health care in the preceding year | 20% |
A quarter of providers were, by the survey's own measure, ill. A fifth
obtained care — and those are not the same fifth, so the shortfall is larger
than six percentage points suggests.
Why not
The primary barriers to seeking care:
- Difficulty getting time off work
- Concerns about confidentiality
- Cost
Every one of those is specific to being a clinician. Time off is hardest to
arrange in exactly the understaffed settings that generate the stress.
Confidentiality is a professional concern rather than a private one — a mental
health record can touch licensing. And cost falls on people surrounded by care
they cannot access as patients.
The one thing that helped
**Support from supervisors reduced the effect of work stressors on mental
health symptoms.**
Not a wellness programme, not an app. A supervisor.
What the report asks for
Reducing the gap through **organisational and governmental efforts to reduce
stigma**, addressing concerns about confidentiality and licensing, and
increasing supervisor training.
The licensing point is the one outsiders miss, and it is the reason a doctor
who would send a patient to therapy without hesitation may not go themselves:
the question on a licence renewal form.
*Source: Papa A, Barile JP, Jia H, Thompson WW, Guerin RJ. Gaps in Mental
Health Care–Seeking Among Health Care Providers During the COVID-19 Pandemic —
United States, September 2022–May 2023. MMWR, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.*
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