By Prior Beharry
THE number of healthcare workers accessing mental health services will remain confidential.
This according to Director of Mental Health at the Ministry of Health Dr Hazel Othello speaking during the virtual press conference on Covid-19 on Wednesday.
Responding to a question from AZPNews.com, Dr Othello said there was a psychological toll on frontline and healthcare workers in the pandemic.
She cited an article in the British Medical Journal about mental issues of healthcare workers.
Dr Othello said the article showed increases in depression, anxiety and stress among healthcare workers with higher levels of stress in women than men.
She also noted that the mental health issues were affecting younger people around the age of 30 compared to older people.
Dr Othello said people who worked with Covid-19 patients were more affected.
She said she could not reveal information about how many healthcare workers would have accessed the employee assistance programme (EAP) since it was confidential.
Dr Othello said, “If information is released and got back to employers, the employees would not use those services.”
Othello said service providers could be accessed at findcarett.com.
