University of Roehampton leads national survey measuring the effect across UK


image: University of Roehampton

A team of NHS clinicians and academics have launched a major new online survey to measure the psychological impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on health care professionals across the UK.

Led by Dr James Gilleen from the Department of Psychology, the unfunded* COVIDA study will help to build a picture of how this group of workers are coping during the COVID outbreak, and how their mental health changes as the COVID-19 outbreak evolves. The survey asks how health workers are coping at the moment, including their stress, anxiety and mood. It asks about their recent experiences of working in health care, their concerns about PPE, COVID-19, workload, personal risk as well as the potentially positive aspects such as resilience or motivation. Additionally, it aims to understand which factors may worsen the impact on their mental health and which factors may help individuals.

The findings will be used to raise awareness of this critical issue, as well as provide a foundation to develop new strategic approaches which may be able to reduce the psychological burden on our health workers. With sufficient funding, the study team aims to develop a new intervention which specifically targets the driving factors that are critical to preventing worsening mental health.

The research team includes consultant psychiatrists across various NHS Trusts (North East London NHS Foundation Trust, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust, and Barts Health NHS Trust), psychologists and data scientists across various research institutes (the University of Roehampton, University College London and King’s College London).

If you are a health worker in any setting the survey can be found here and can be shared widely.

* This study is currently unfunded. You can help promote a national response across nurses, doctors, midwives, and social care workers, as well as provide resource to the team so they can continue the project. Funding will also help with the expansion of the research programme and in the development of a new intervention which could improve the mental health of UK health workers.

You can donate to help the study here.

May 8, 2020