A specific mental health intervention for healthcare workers in Turkey

The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has become an unprecedented crisis affecting millions of people since it was detected in the city of Wuhan, China, in December 2019. As the number of cases has increased, healthcare service providers have been overloaded in some countries. As frontline responders, healthcare workers deserve special consideration of their psychological vulnerability. However, the psychological burden of pandemics on healthcare workers unfortunately has not been fully recognized or understood. Previous research from other outbreaks shows that healthcare workers present high psychological distress related to work overload, risk of contagion, treating infected colleagues, perception of stigmatization, social isolation, workplace stress and concerns about family members (Maunder et al., 2006). Indeed, one in six healthcare workers showed signs of severe psychological distress (Lu et al., 2006).