COMVC-19: A Program to protect healthcare workers' mental health during the COVID-19 Pandemic. What we have learned

Pedro Fukuti, Caroline Louise Mesquita Uchôa, Marina Flaborea Mazzoco, Isabella D’Andrea Garcia da Cruz, Mariana V.F. Echegaray, Eduardo de Castro Humes, Júlia Belizário Silveira, Talita Di Santi, Euripedes Constantino Miguel, Felipe Corchs, COMVC-19 program, Daniel Fatori, Guilherme Campello, Gabriel M. de Oliveira, Felipe C. Argolo, Felipe de M. Ferreira, Gustavo Machado, Adriana Argeu, Graça Maria Ramos de Oliveira, Antônio de Pádua Serafim, Luciana de Lima Siqueira, Luciane de Rossi, Izabel Cristina Rios, Talita Rodrigues de Oliveira, Leilane C.K. Antoniazzi, Daniel Augusto Mori Gagliotti, Emílio Abelama, Paulo Novais de Oliveira, Aline Villalobo Correia, Luca Schilling Gonçalves, Liana Silva Tortato, Wagner Machado Moraes Busato, Flávio Guimarães-Fernandes, Marcos Alves, Oswaldo Ferreira Leite, Patrícia de Campos Lindenberg Schoueri, Márcio de Assis Roque, Silvia Stahl Merlin, Giovana Cardoso Machado Boer, Paulo Clemente Sallet, André Malbergier, Mariana Abrahão Spedo, Carla Satie Kamitsuji, Elizabeth de Faria, Moacyr Vergara de Godoy Moreira, Arthur Kaufman, Carmita Abdo, Marco de Tubino Scanavino, Selma Lancman, Hermano Tavares, Guilherme Polanczyk, André R. Brunoni, Orestes V. Forlenza, Tarcísio Eloy Pessoa de Barros-Filho

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought a work and stress overload to healthcare workers, increasing their vulnerability to mental health impairments. In response, the authors created the COMVC-19 program. The program offered preventive actions and mental health treatment for the 22,000 workers of The Hospital das Clinicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (HCFMUSP). This paper aims to describe its implementation and share what we have learned from this experience. Workers were able to easily access the program through a 24/7 hotline. Additionally, a mobile phone app that screened for signs and symptoms of emotional distress and offered psychoeducation and/or referral to treatment was made available. Data from both these sources as well as any subsequent psychiatric evaluations were collected. The first 20 weeks of our project revealed that most participants were female, and part of the nursing staff working directly with COVID-19 patients. The most frequently reported symptoms were: anxiety, depression and sleep disturbances. The most common diagnoses were Adjustment, Anxiety, and Mood disorders. Implementing a mental health program in a multimodal intervention was feasible in a major quaternary public hospital. Our data also suggests that preventive actions should primarily be aimed at anxiety and depression symptoms, with a particular focus on the nursing staff.