An Intervention Framework to Facilitate Psychological Trauma Management in High-Risk Occupations

Psychological support for healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed methods study involving support providers

Background: Healthcare staff represent a high-risk group for mental health difficulties as a result of their role during the COVID-19 pandemic. A number of wellbeing initiatives have been implemented to support this population, but remain largely untested in terms of their impact on both the recipients and providers of supports.Objective: To examine the experience of staff support providers in delivering psychological initiatives to healthcare staff, as well as obtain feedback on their perceptions of the effectiveness of different forms of support.Method: A mixed methods design employing a quantitative survey and qualitative focus group methodologies. An opportunity sample of 84 psychological therapists providing psychological supports to Northern Ireland healthcare staff participated in an online survey. Fourteen providers took part in two focus groups.Results: The majority of providers rated a number of supports as useful (e.g. staff wellbeing helplines, Hospital In-reach) and found the role motivating and satisfying. Thematic analysis yielded five themes related to provision of support: (1) Learning as we go, applying and altering the response; (2) The 'call to arms', identity and trauma in the collective response; (3) Finding the value; (4) The experience of the new role; and (5) Moving forward.Conclusions: While delivering supports was generally a positive experience for providers, adaptation to the demands of this role was dependent upon important factors (e.g. clinical experience) that need to be considered in the planning phase. Robust guidance should be developed that incorporates such findings to ensure effective evidence-based psychological supports are available for healthcare staff during and after the pandemic.

The effect of courage on stress: The mediating mechanism of behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation in high-risk occupations

Employees in high-risk occupations are exposed to tremendous work acute stress or prolonged stress disorders that are likely to undermine the health and organizational effectiveness. Based on positive psychology, courage which refers to behavioral approach despite the experience of fear could buffer the negative effects on stress. However, there is little known about the mechanisms by which courage decreases the risk of stress. Motivational systems may play an underlying role in this process, as behavioral inhibition system (BIS) is inhibited and behavioral activation system (BAS) is evoked by risk or threat. The current study aimed to examine the mediating effects of behavioral inhibition and activation on the relationship between courage and stress in the high-risk occupations. This study recruited 1,761 high-risk employees aged from 18 to 27 (M = 19.32; SD = 4.14) with a cluster sampling method who completed Courage Measure (CM), the BIS/BAS Scales and the Psychological Stress Evaluation Test (PSET). The correlation and mediation analyses examined the inter-variable correlations as well as the underlying mechanism between courage and stress. The results support the hypothesis and reveal that the behavioral inhibition mediates the association between courage and stress (Bindirect = −0.02, p < 0. 01, 95%CI = −0.03 to −0.003). The behavioral activation of fun seeking mediates the association between courage and stress as well (Bindirect = −0.04, p < 0. 01, 95%CI = −0.058 to −0.029). These findings suggest that behavioral inhibition and activation of fun seeking play imperative mechanism underpinning the buffering effect of courage on stress. Other theoretical and applied implications for desensitizing stress in the high-risk occupations are discussed.

The Validity of Virtual Courage for Trainees in High-Risk Occupations

Background

Employees in high-risk occupations are exposed to tremendous work stress that hinders organizational effectiveness and personal mental health. Based on positive psychology, courage can be considered a protective factor that buffers the adverse effect of high-risk surroundings on employees. However, little is known about the way courage is simulated or evaluated in response to safety concerns. Virtual reality (VR) is an accessible tool for courage simulation due to its immersive qualities, presence and interactive features and may provide a promising pathway to achieve a scientific, accurate and ecologically valid evaluation of high-risk employees.

Methods

The sample consisted of 51 high-risk employees who were recruited voluntarily. Before and after experiencing the VR courage scenarios, the participants completed the VR features questionnaire, the Physical Courage at Work Scale (PCWS), the Courage Measure (CM), and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS). During the process of watching the VR courage scenarios, the participants’ heart rate and skin conductance at resting-state baseline and during virtual courage scenarios were recorded through HTC VIVE Pro Eye and BioGraph Infiniti 8.

Results

The results support the hypothesis and reveal that the interaction, immersion and presence scores of the scenarios were all significantly higher than the median 4 points. The score for the CM in the posttest was significantly higher than that in the pretest. The scared and afraid scores for the posttest were significantly higher than those for the pretest. The heart rate and skin conductance of each scenario showed an increase compared with the baseline. The Pearson’s correlation between physiological indicators and the score of the PCWS was 0.28~0.54.

Conclusion

This study developed virtual courage for high-risk occupations based on well-established theory and VR technology. Experimental data revealed that the paradigm conformed to the requirements of VR features and was able to activate fear and evoke the quality of courage. Thus, the virtual courage paradigms have good validity in simulating scenarios for high-risk employees, which might accelerate organizational effectiveness while buffering working stress.

An industrial psychology perspective of workplace counselling in the changing world of work

Orientation: Regulations for the industrial psychology profession state that short-term counselling may be provided to employees in the workplace. It is therefore necessary to be equipped with the required skills to assist employees especially to cope in the changing world of work.Research purpose: The general objective of this research study was to explore the role of industrial psychologists as workplace counsellors in the changing world of work.Motivation for the study: In light of recent changes in the world due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), there seems to be a strong motivation to explore the importance of workplace counselling with regard to the changing nature of work.Research approach/design and method: A qualitative descriptive research strategy was utilised, with homogeneous sampling of 22 industrial psychology practitioners (n = 22).Main findings: The results showed that workplace counselling as an intervention provides the support employees need to adapt to changes in the workplace. Technological advances have a major impact on the manner in which people work, and therefore employees need the support to cope with these changes. Counselling from an industrial psychology practitioner could provide this type of support.Practical/managerial implications: Industrial psychology practitioners in the role of counsellors in an organisation play a major part in helping employees with accepting and coping with the changes and challenges presented by the implications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR).Contribution/value-add: This study could contribute by providing organisations with valuable feedback on how to address challenges presented by the changing nature of work, specifically the importance of the role of workplace counselling provided by industrial psychology practitioners.

Health Risk Factors among Doctors, Psychologists and Nurses of Pakistan during COVID-19 Pandemic

The present study aimed to find out differences in health risk factors of COVID-19 among doctors, nurses and psychologists by determining the relationship of cognitive appraisal, coping styles, stress and fear among health professionals. Cross-sectional research design was used. Sample comprised of 3 groups; doctors, nurses and psychologists (n = 145 in each group) working in tertiary care hospitals. Stress appraisal measure, Brief COPE inventory, Perceived stress scale and Fear contracting COVID-19 questionnaire were used to assess cognitive appraisal, coping, stress and fear respectively. Results showed that nurses had high uncontrollable, stressfulness and primary appraisal, used more avoidant emotional and problem focused coping, were more stressed and fearful as compared to doctors and psychologists. Psychologists had a high appraisal of control-self and control-others as compared to doctors and nurses and were more fearful than doctors. Doctors and psychologists used more coping of humor as compared to nurses. Moreover, primary appraisal and avoidant emotional coping positively predicted stress whereas control-self appraisal negatively predicted stress among health professionals. Uncontrollable and stressfulness appraisal positively correlated with fear. This study will direct the administrative authorities to take effective measures to improve psychological wellbeing and to deal with fear and stress of health professionals.

Empathic Psychology: A Code of Risk Prevention and Control for Behavior Guidance in the Multicultural Context

This study aims to uncover the relationship among multicultural differences, empathy, and the behaviors of risk prevention and control in the context of crisis events by using a sample of 300 individuals in 10 different multicultural countries. A theoretical logic model was applied to empirical analysis, and the results indicated that cultural differences positively influenced the behavior of empathy communication and risk prevention and control. Further analyses revealed that real-time monitoring of changes in empathy could provide better options of measures for local risk prevention and control when the same crisis event occurred in a multicultural context. With user-generated content (UGC) emerging in the web 2.0 era, this paper proposed a more profound empathy code regarding the periodicity of risk prevention and control. This paper expects to contribute to the circumvention of cognitive errors caused by cultural differences, and to further provide effective conduction for individuals' risk prevention and control behaviors.

Counselling preparedness and responsiveness of industrial psychologists in the face of COVID-19

Orientation

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has brought to the forefront the need for industrial-organisational psychologists (IOPs) and organisations to place an emphasis on employees’ mental and physical health at all times.

Research purpose

The purpose of the research was to determine how prepared IOPs are to counsel employees during the pandemic and how responsive they are to provide counselling.

Motivation for the study

It is not clear to what extent such counselling is being practised by IOPs in the workplace during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research approach/design and method

A qualitative approach was used to gain an understanding of registered South African IOPs’ experiences of workplace counselling, particularly during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Main findings

Regarding preparedness, we found that IOPs are ill-prepared to counsel in the workplace. Preparedness was influenced by participants’ counselling education, skills and knowledge; experience; convictions about counselling; and psychological and organisational preparedness. Whilst some IOPs did engage in more counselling during the COVID-19 pandemic, most reverted to mitigating actions such as referrals, wellness management, equipping managers and change initiatives.

Practical/managerial implications

The results of this study indicate that, under pandemic conditions, there is an increased need for counselling practices within the workplace and that IOPs should explore the ways in which they could play a more active role in such counselling.

Contribution/value-add

Although we found that IOPs generally responded to employees’ mental health needs in a positive manner, there was a lack of counselling preparedness and responsiveness during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A psychological health support scheme for medical teams in COVID-19 outbreak and its effectiveness

Background

Medical staff fighting the COVID-19 pandemic are experiencing stress from high occupational risk, panic in the community and the extreme workload. Maintaining the psychological health of a medical team is essential for efficient functioning, but psychological intervention models for emergency medical teams are rare.

Aims

To design a systematic, full-coverage psychological health support scheme for medical teams serving large-scale emergent situations, and demonstrate its effectiveness in a real-world study in Leishenshan Hospital during the COVID-19 epidemic in Wuhan, China.

Methods

The scheme integrates onsite and online mental health resources and features team-based psychosocial support and evidence-based interventions. It contained five modules, including a daily measurement of mood, a daily mood broadcast that promotes positive affirmation, a daily online peer-group activity with themes based on the challenges reported by the team, Balint groups and an after-work support team. The daily mood measurement provides information to the other modules. The scheme also respects the special psychological characteristics of medical staff by promoting their strengths.

Results

The scheme economically supported a special medical team of 156 members with only one onsite psychiatrist. Our data reflected that the entire medical team maintained an overall positive outlook (7–9 out of 10 in a Daily Mood Index, DMI) for nearly 6 weeks of continuous working. Since the scheme promoted self-strengths and positive self-affirmation, the number of self-reports of life-related gains were high and played a significant effect on the DMI. Our follow-up investigations also revealed that multiple modules of the scheme received high attention and evaluation levels.

Conclusion

Our quantitative data from Leishenshan hospital, Wuhan, China, show that the programme is adequate to support the continuous high workload of medical teams. This scheme could be applied to medical teams dealing with emergent situations.