Mental health of intensive care professionals: "not to be neglected"!

2023-07-18 09:23:10

The European Society for Intensive Care Medicine and the European Commission sign a joint statement on the mental health of intensive care professionals which should in no way be “overlooked”. They demand that the issue be addressed in all European Union legislation and make seven requests to this effect.

“To provide the best care possible, a team [de soignants] must be in good mental health,” said Elie Azoulay, President of the European Society for Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM), at the third meeting of the European Parliament’s Intensive Care Interest Group in Strasbourg on July 11. Indeed, as recalled by this joint declaration, “ health professionals in general, and resuscitators in particular, are among the professions most affected by psychosocial risks, which not only diminishes the attractiveness of their profession and causes retention problems in health systems across the world. Europe, but also has a direct impact on their private and professional life and therefore consequences on their patients, relatives and families. Only medical professionals in good mental health can appropriately care for patients and their families. Critical care healthcare professionals have suffered greatly during the COVID-19 pandemic and are now, once again, on the front lines in this silent pandemic when it comes to burnout syndrome and other mental illnesses. For these reasons, we call on the European Commission and the Member States to tackle mental health disorders of health professionals in all their European, national and local strategies on the subject.«

“Member States are encouraged to raise awareness of mental health issues among professionals and to develop and implement policies and best practices to build essential worker resilience.ls »

The joint statement therefore makes seven specific demands:
– Adopt a “mental health in all policies” strategy, while including a specific chapter on the health of health professionals.
– Strengthen cooperation between European institutions, Member States and healthcare professionals to establish a harmonized approach to the issue of the mental health of professionals, hospital management, in particular those of intensive care.
– Create guidelines on how to address the mental health problems of healthcare professionals, particularly in intensive care, adapt their work environment and create methods to retain the workforce and restore attractiveness.
– develop a specific definition of the burnout syndrome which would apply concretely to healthcare professionals in intensive care and to their work environment.
– Integrate the 3Rs method (Recognise, Reverse and build resilience) to tackle burnout in hospitals and promote it as a harmonized approach in all Member States.
– Increase European funding programs, especially those addressing the deterioration of the mental health of healthcare professionals.
– Organize a European year of mental health with concrete actions in favor of health professionals