McMaster researchers receive $4.5M to address pandemic trauma among health-care workers

Witnessing people dying alone. Turning away patients from hospitals. These are some of the distressing experiences front-line health-care workers faced during the pandemic.

Now, some of these health-care workers are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and moral injury - most commonly observed among war veterans - related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our own data suggests that one in four health-care workers report symptoms consistent with a probable diagnosis of PTSD," Margaret McKinnon, a psychiatry and behavioural science professor at McMaster University, said in a release.

In an interview with The Spectator, McKinnon compared the level of distress among health-care workers to that of Romeo Dallaire, a Canadian Army veteran who led the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Rwanda in 1993.

When Dallaire returned home from Rwanda and talked about the genocide, he said he felt betrayed, violated of moral and ethical values because he wasn't allowed to intervene," McKinnon said.

Drawing comparisons, McKinnon noted health-care workers have been on a war footing ... facing similar stresses and strains you might see in wartime."

Seeing multiple deaths of healthier populations, fearing loss of their own lives, and putting their families at risk due to exposure have been some of the major stressors.

They were also not trained to face warlike challenges, or care for their mental health during the crisis, said McKinnon.

McKinnon is one of two McMaster researchers who recently received a total of $4.5 million in funding to help address the pandemic trauma faced by health-care workers.

McKinnon received $2.96 million in funding from the federal government for the Healthcare Salute project, which is expected to bring evidence-based resources to 75,000 health-care workers across Canada at 708 public hospitals.

She noted the project would continue our surveillance on the mental health and well-being of health-care workers, and also better equip health-care workers to recognize when they're having mental-health difficulties, and where to seek help." It is expected to launch in March.

McKinnon told The Spectator that after the Delta variant, one in four Canadian health-care workers were considering leaving their position, which has now escalated to one in every two contemplating leaving the profession.

While the health-care system continues to experience workforce shortages across the country, McKinnon said the effort to address mental-health challenges is one of the steps to stop losing" them.

Sandra Moll, an associate professor in the School of Rehabilitation Science at McMaster, was granted $1.56 million to develop the McMaster Beyond Silence 2.0 mobile app to promote early intervention and peer support for front-line health-care workers.

Moll told The Spectator the app is designed to build mental-health literacy."

The app is specifically made by and for health-care workers, who're often busy looking after people ... not necessarily looking after themselves," Moll said.

Homewood Health Centre, a mental health and addiction facility, will be training health-care professionals to provide peer support and care.

The mobile app, scheduled to launch in November, is projected to reach 10,000 to 50,000 health-care workers across Canada.

The funding received by Moll and McKinnon is part of $28.2 million in federal public health funding designated to be distributed among nine projects for addressing PTSD and trauma, the release said.

Moll is also leading interdisciplinary research - OnCall - in partnership with the Canadian Institute for Public Safety Research Treatment (CIPSRT) at the University of Regina. This study would expand access to peer support for up to 30,000 firefighters, paramedics, public safety communicators, and correctional workers.

The CIPSRT team has received $3.71 million for the research.

Ritika Dubey is a reporter at The Spectator. rdubey@thespec.com