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| LETTER TO EDITOR |
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| Year : 2022 | Volume
: 17
| Issue : 3 | Page : 807 |
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Mental health nurse and COVID-19: View from Southeast Asia
Viroj Wiwanitkit
Department of Community Medicine, Dr. DY Patil University, Pune, Maharashtra, India
| Date of Submission | 19-May-2020 |
| Date of Decision | 15-Sep-2020 |
| Date of Acceptance | 02-Nov-2020 |
| Date of Web Publication | 2-Nov-2022 |
Correspondence Address:
Prof. Viroj Wiwanitkit
Dr. DY Patil University, Pune, Maharashtra
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/jdmimsu.jdmimsu_197_20
How to cite this article:
Wiwanitkit V. Mental health nurse and COVID-19: View from Southeast Asia. J Datta Meghe Inst Med Sci Univ 2022;17:807 |
Dear Editor,
The issue on COVID-19 and role of mental health nurses in Hong Kong is very interesting.[1],[2] In a recent report, Cheung et al. noted that “the direct impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of the population, mental health service users, and nurses is predicted to be a major issue in Hong Kong[1]” and “the potential for a major economic recession and the resulting long-lasting damage on mental well-being should not be underestimated.”[1] A psychiatric problem is an important clinical problem during outbreak. Mental health nurse plays a role in the management of mental health problem during crisis. We hereby would like to share data on mental health nurse during COVID-19 outbreak in Indochina, the second area of the world that disease occurred.[3] Similar to Hong Kong and Australia,[1],[2] the impact of mental health service users and nurse is observed. Due to the lockdown, patients do usually not visit to a physician at hospital and the mental health nurses do not provide regular service at hospital. The role of mental health nurse in hospital is limited. Some patients who require continuous mental healthcare cannot access to the service at the hospital, and the mental health nurse practice has to turn to a more active service by active community health care. The long-term consequence from economic recession has to be monitored. In addition, another interesting issue is risk of nurse for getting COVID-19 from occupational work. Many general nurses already get infection due to lack of sufficient protective devices and preventive systems in hospitals. The insufficient protective devices become a big problem at present. Nevertheless, there is still no report on COVID-19 infection among mental health nurse or other medical personnel who play a role in mental healthcare service. Although there is a possible impact of COVID-19 on mental health of nursing staff, there is no report on the study on stress from occupational risk. There is an urgent need for supporting for healthcare worker during the COVID-19 outbreak crisis.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
| References | |  |
| 1. | Cheung T, Fong TK, Bressington D. COVID-19 under the SARS cloud: Mental health nursing during the pandemic in Hong Kong. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs 2020 Apr 20;10.1111/jpm.12639.  |
| 2. | Lakeman R. Mental Health Nurses locked out while Australia locks down. J Psychiatr Ment Health Nurs . 2020 Apr 20;10.1111/jpm.12639. |
| 3. | Yasri S, Wiwanitkit V. Editorial: Wuhan coronavirus outbreak and imported case. Adv Trop Med Pub Health Int 2020;10:1-2. |
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