Abstract
(1) Background: While in many countries, the psychiatric and mental health sectors had been in crisis for years, the onset of a novel coronavirus pandemic impacted their structures, organizations, and professionals worldwide. (2) Methods: To document the early impacts of the COVID-19 health crisis on psychiatry and mental health sectors, a systematic review of the international literature published in 2020 was conducted in PubMed (MEDLINE), Cairn.info, and SantéPsy (Ascodocpsy) databases. (3) Results: After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, 72 articles from scientific journals were selected, including papers documenting the early impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the organization of psychiatric care delivery, work processes in psychiatry and mental health units, and personal experiences of mental health professionals. This review identified the contributions aimed at preventing the onset of mental disorders in the early stages of the health crisis. It lists the organizational changes that have been implemented in the first place to ensure continuity of psychiatric care while reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission. It questions the evolution of the rights and duties of mental health professionals in the first months of the pandemic. (4) Discussion and conclusions: Although this literature review exclusively documented the early impacts of the COVID-19 health crisis, it is of significant interest, as it pictures the unprecedent situation in which psychiatry and mental health care professionals found themselves in the first stages of the pandemic. This work is a preliminary step of a study to be conducted with mental health professionals on an international scale—the Psy-GIPO2C project—based on more than 15 group interviews, 30 individual interviews, and 2000 questionnaires. The final aim of this study is to formulate concrete recommendations for decision-makers to improve work in psychiatry and mental health.
Highlights
Since late 2019, the world has been impacted by the outset and spread of a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, responsible for the COVID-19 coronavirus disease
The health crisis accompanying this pandemic has been placing an unprecedented burden on psychiatry and mental health care systems, many of which had already been straining for years [1,2]
The fear of being infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the workplace has generally been lower among professionals working in the field of psychiatry than among those working in ambulances, eldercare, and childcare [37]; mental health professionals working in geriatric psychiatry mentioned, for instance, their concern about the risk of unintentionally infecting their patients, because of the existence of asymptomatic forms of the disease [34]
Summary
Since late 2019, the world has been impacted by the outset and spread of a new coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, responsible for the COVID-19 coronavirus disease. Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International. The health crisis accompanying this pandemic has been placing an unprecedented burden on psychiatry and mental health care systems, many of which had already been straining for years [1,2]. The COVID-19 health crisis has led health facilities, institutions, and professionals to adapt their organization as well as their practices. A series of measures have been deployed in the early stages of the health crisis to ensure continuity of care and meet the new needs generated by the crisis [5,6] while reducing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission
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