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Cited by 64COVID-19 and Mental HealthHealthcare professionals’ stress and burnoutOccupational Health and Burnout

Coping strategies adopted by Australian frontline health workers to address psychological distress during the COVID-19 pandemic

Open access
Smallwood, Natasha, Karimi, Leila, Pascoe, Amy, Bismark, Marie, Putland, Mark, Johnson, Douglas, Dharmage, Shyamali C., Barson, Elizabeth +9 more·2021·General Hospital Psychiatry
DOI 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2021.08.008PMC PMC8437691
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Abstract

Objectives The Australian COVID-19 Frontline Healthcare Workers Study investigated coping strategies and help-seeking behaviours, and their relationship to mental health symptoms experienced by Australian healthcare workers (HCWs) during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods Australian HCWs were invited to participate a nationwide, voluntary, anonymous, single time-point, online survey between 27th August and 23rd October 2020. Complete responses on demographics, home and work situation, and measures of health and psychological wellbeing were received from 7846 participants.Results The most commonly reported adaptive coping strategies were maintaining exercise (44.9%) and social connections (31.7%). Over a quarter of HCWs (26.3%) reported increased alcohol use which was associated with a history of poor mental health and worse personal relationships. Few used psychological wellbeing apps or sought professional help; those who did were more likely to be suffering from moderate to severe symptoms of mental illness. People living in Victoria, in regional areas, and those with children at home were significantly less likely to report adaptive coping strategies.Conclusions Personal, social, and workplace predictors of coping strategies and help-seeking behaviour during the pandemic were identified. Use of maladaptive coping strategies and low rates of professional help-seeking indicate an urgent need to understand the effectiveness of, and the barriers and enablers of accessing, different coping strategies.

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  • Past studies reported that psychological flexibility, psychological mindedness, mindfulness, and coping styles were among protective factors for psychological distress.

    “past studies reporting that psychological constructs, such as psychological flexibility, psychological mindedness, mindfulness, and coping styles, were among protective factors for psychological distress [13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20].”

    From Seroprevalence of COVID-19 and Psychological Distress among Front Liners at the Universiti Malaysia Sabah Campus during the Third Wave of COVID-19 (2022) · cites this paper as [15]

    The Introduction (page unavailable) describes coping strategies as modifiers of mental-health outcomes, and the Discussion (page unavailable) describes exercise and social connections as effective ways to deal with stress and cites prior work on mindfulness. The paper does not address psychological flexibility or psychological mindedness, so it supports only part of the cited list of protective factors. (LLM, conf=0.86)

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [22]Maslach C. Jackson S.E. Leiter M.P. Maslach Burnout Inventory: Third edition. Evaluating stress: A book of resources 1997 Scarecrow Education Lanham, MD, US 191 218

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Authors
Smallwood, N., Karimi, L., Pascoe, A., Bismark, M., Putland, M., Johnson, D., Dharmage, S. C., Barson, E., Atkin, N., Long, C., Ng, I., Holland, A., Munro, J., Thevarajan, I., Moore, C., McGillion, A., & Willis, K.
Affiliations
  • The Alfred Hospital (AU)
  • La Trobe University (AU)
  • The Royal Melbourne Hospital (AU)
  • The University of Melbourne (AU)
  • Western Health (AU)
  • Royal Children's Hospital (AU)
  • Royal Adelaide Hospital (AU)
Corresponding author
Smallwood, Natasha
ORCID
Venue
General Hospital Psychiatry
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2021-09
Volume
72
Pages
124-130
ISSN
0163-8343 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2021.08.008
PMC
PMC8437691
OpenAlex
W3196184954
Cited by
64
References
39
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 3
FWCI
8.97
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • General Hospital Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Victoria University Research Repository (Victoria University) (submittedVersion)
  • RMIT Research Repository (RMIT University Library) (submittedVersion)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion)
  • La Trobe University
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › COVID-19 and Mental Health
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Healthcare professionals’ stress and burnout
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › Occupational Therapy › Occupational Health and Burnout
Keywords
coping strategies, healthcare workers, psychological distress, COVID-19 pandemic, help-seeking, mental health, maladaptive coping, alcohol consumption, social connectedness, physical activity, Victoria, Australia
MeSH terms
Help-Seeking Behavior, Psychological Distress, COVID-19, Adaptation, Psychological, Adult, Australia, Mental Disorders, Female, Health Personnel, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Surveys and Questionnaires, Young Adult, Pandemics

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