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Spain's virus surge hits mental health of front-line workers - Associated Press

Spain's virus surge hits mental health of front-line workers - Associated Press

Spain's virus surge hits mental health of front-line workers - Associated Press
Jan 24, 2021 1 min, 20 secs

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — The unrelenting increase in COVID-19 infections in Spain following the holiday season is again straining hospitals, threatening the mental health of doctors and nurses who have been at the forefront of the pandemic for nearly a year.

Spanish health care workers are far from the only ones to have suffered psychologically from the pandemic.

In China, the levels of mental disorders among doctors and nurses were even higher, with 50% reporting depression, 45% reporting anxiety and 34% reporting insomnia, according to the World Health Organization.

One in four sought out mental health support.

What really helped Carmona, though, was a support group at his hospital, where his co-workers unloaded the experiences they had bottled up inside.

“In our profession, we can handle a lot,” said David Oliver, a spokesman for the Catalonia chapter of the SATSE union of nurses.

The most affected group of health care workers, according to the study, were nurse’s aides and nurses, who are overwhelmingly women and often immigrants.

To prevent infections, patients are rarely allowed family visits, adding to their dependency on nurses.

Unlike in the summer, when the number of cases fell and health workers were encouraged to take holidays, doctors and nurses have been working incessantly since the fall, when virus cases picked up again.

Alonso fears the latest surge of virus patients could be as detrimental to the mental health of medical staff as the shock of the pandemic’s first months

“If we want to be cared for adequately, we also need to take care of the health care workers, who have suffered and are still suffering,” he said

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