Development of an Evidence-Informed Solution to Emotional Distress in Public Safety Personnel and Healthcare Workers: The Social Support, Tracking Distress, Education, and Discussion CommunitY (STEADY) Program

An integrated health management model to improve the health of professional e-sports athletes: a literature review

Background

With the rapid development of the esports industry, an increasing number of esports athletes face various health issues due to occupational characteristics such as a prolonged sedentary lifestyle, high-intensity training, and multi-cycle competitions. Effectively managing and improving the health status of esports athletes has become an urgent need. As a systematic and multidisciplinary collaborative management strategy, the Integrated Health Management Model has been widely applied to various occupational groups, but its application among esports athletes has not yet been systematically reviewed.

Methodology

This study adopted a narrative literature review method to collect and analyze the existing literature on the health issues and health management of esports athletes. This study aimed to identify the major health problems of esports athletes and explore the role of the Integrated Health Management Model in improving and preventing these health problems.

Results

This study resulted in two main findings: (1) The main health issues faced by esports athletes include musculoskeletal disorders, visual fatigue, metabolic disorders, and psychological stress; (2) the Integrated Health Management Model, through the integration of physical activity and fitness training, psychological counseling, ergonomic optimization, vision protection, and health education, can effectively alleviate common health problems among esports athletes and promote overall health improvement.

Conclusion

The Integrated Health Management Model can effectively improve the overall health level of esports athletes through the integration and synergy of multiple strategies.

Recovery-oriented and trauma-informed care for people with mental disorders to promote human rights and quality of mental health care: a scoping review

BACKGROUND

In several countries, the growing emphasis on human rights and the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) have highlighted the need for changes in culture, attitudes and practices of mental health services. New approaches, such as recovery-oriented care (ROC) and trauma-informed care (TIC) emphasize the users' needs and experiences and promote autonomy and human rights.

AIMS

To provide an overview of the literature on recovery-oriented care (ROC) and trauma-informed care (TIC) and their relevance to the promotion of human rights and quality of mental health care.

METHOD

We conducted a scoping review by searching the following databases: PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO. We performed a qualitative synthesis of the literature aimed at reviewing: (1) current conceptualisations of recovery in mental health care; (2) recovery-oriented practices in mental health care; (3) current conceptualizations of trauma and TIC in mental health care; (4) trauma-informed practices in mental health care; (5) the relationship between ROC and TIC, with a particular focus on their shared goal of promoting alternatives to coercion, and on trauma-informed and/or recovery oriented alternatives to coercion.

RESULTS

According to prevailing conceptual frameworks, ROC and TIC share many underlying principles and should be regarded as complementary. Both approaches affirm the conceptualization of service users as persons, foster their autonomy and rely on their involvement in designing and monitoring mental health services. Both approaches promote human rights. A wider consensus on conceptual frameworks, tools and methodologies is needed to support ROC and TIC implementation and allow comparison among practices. Recovery-oriented and trauma-informed models of care can contribute to the implementation of non-coercive practices, which show promising results but warrant further empirical study.

CONCLUSIONS

Recovery-oriented and trauma-informed practices and principles may contribute to the shift towards rights-based mental health care and to the implementation and successful uptake of alternatives to coercion. Local and international work aimed to promote and test these approaches may provide a contribution to improving mental health care world-wide. Future research should focus on the outcomes of all involved stakeholders' and include the perspectives of both staff members and service users in different contexts.

The experience of drug-related client loss for healthcare professionals who support people in addiction

INTRODUCTION

Addiction support and recovery is a multi-faceted support context in which practitioners work with clients who present with increased mortality risks. Drug-related deaths are understood to be a risk factor for complicated grief-reactions but, to date, research has neglected to explore the intricacies of drug-related client loss for practitioners who work with clients experiencing addiction. Due to wider expectations of professional endurance and the demanding nature of health care, grief-related reactions associated with the loss of a client may go unprocessed and, therefore, result in long-term health implications.

METHOD

Fifteen health care professionals took part in individual semi-structured interviews, which were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Participants represented various disciplines in addiction support and recovery, including homelessness, inclusion health, addiction, and emergency medicine.

RESULTS

Three core themes emerged encapsulating the experience of drug-related bereavement for HCPs who support people experiencing addiction, as follows: (i) Grief Beneath the Surface, (ii) The Cost of Caring, and (iii) Finding Closure. The findings identified acute grief-related reactions in HCPs such as self-blame and shame, alongside fears of litigation and questions of clinical competency. Participants' accounts of drug-related client loss emphasized a deep professional connection with those that they work with, with grief-responses akin to the loss of peers, family members, and other close connections. The bereavement experience was complicated by unique compounding variables associated with drug-related deaths, but also by incongruity between their emotional responses to death and their professional responsibilities.

CONCLUSIONS

This article highlights the complex nature of drug-related client loss, and despite their social positioning as experts in their field, HCPs' reactions to client deaths were predominantly human responses to loss. The article identified a need for targeted postvention protocols that address complicated grief while also allowing staff to resume occupational functioning in a measured manner.

Protective and risk factors associated with substance use coping among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background

Healthcare workers (HCWs) experienced high levels of stress and mental health consequences associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, which may have contributed to unhealthy coping behaviors, such as substance use coping (SUC). This study aimed to understand the extent of and predictors of SUC.

Methods

The sample consisted of 263 HCWs in North Central Florida. Univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses investigated whether moral injury and other work risk factors, protective factors, and clinically relevant symptoms (i.e., work exhaustion, interpersonal disengagement, depression, anxiety, and/or PTSD) were associated with likelihood of SUC.

Results

Clinically relevant levels of interpersonal disengagement and anxiety increased the likelihood of SUC. Mediational analyses found that interpersonal disengagement and anxiety explained 54.3% of the relationship between Self Moral Injury and SUC and explained 80.4% of the relationship between professional fulfillment and SUC.

Conclusion

Healthcare supervisors should be aware that providers who are experiencing moral injury and less professional fulfillment may be experiencing significant interpersonal disengagement and anxiety, which could lead to SUC. Future studies should examine the effects of implementing targeted prevention and treatment interventions, along with longitudinal outcomes related to SUC behaviors.

The impact of internet use on health status among older adults in China: The mediating role of social support

Background

With the popularization of the Internet, the use of the Internet is becoming more and more important in the daily life of older adults. However, previous research mainly focuses on Internet use and health in general, and the mechanism of this effect remains to be studied. To bridge this gap, this study aims to explore the mediational effects of social support between Internet use and health among older adults in China.

Methods

The data used in this article are from the 2021 Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS). Social support is divided into two aspects and four dimensions: informal social support (relatives support, friends support, neighbors support) and formal social support (social insurance). This article uses the nested multivariate OLS regression models to analyze the impact of Internet use on health. Furthermore, Finally, SPSS macro PROCESS is applied to test their mediation effects.

Results

Informal social support positively influenced the health status among older adults, while formal social support did not. Among the three types of informal social support, relatives support and friends support significantly affected health status among Chinese older adults. Regarding social support differences between urban and rural areas, it was found that relatives support is a positively significant factor for rural older adults, while friends support is significant for urban older adults.

Conclusions

Since Internet use has many ways of impacting health status, social support only plays a partial mediating role in this study. It recommends that the government should take compelling measures to encourage and promote the use of the Internet among older adults and obtain various social support to improve their health status.

Implementing the STEADY Wellness Program to Support Healthcare Workers throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed an ongoing threat to the mental wellbeing of countless individuals worldwide, with healthcare workers at particularly high risk. We developed the STEADY staff wellness program prior to the pandemic based on the available literature and input from stakeholders, guided by the Knowledge-to-Action (KTA) Implementation Science Framework. We quickly adapted the STEADY program for implementation in selected high-need units within Canada’s largest trauma hospital during the pandemic’s first wave. This brief report describes implementation of the STEADY program, retroactively applying the structure of the Knowledge-to-Action Implementation Science Framework to the practical steps taken. We identified the importance of more frequent, shorter contact with HCWs that occurred in-person, with an emphasis on peer support. A flexible approach with strong support from hospital leadership were key facilitators. Our findings suggest that a flexible approach to practical program implementation, theoretically underpinned in best-practices, can result in an acceptable program that promotes increased HCW wellbeing during a pandemic.