IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i19p12056-d923422.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Making It Work: The Experiences of Delivering a Community Mental Health Service during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Leanne Burton

    (Department of Primary Care and Mental Health, Institute of Population Health Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GF, UK)

  • Abbie Wall

    (Department of Primary Care and Mental Health, Institute of Population Health Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GF, UK)

  • Elizabeth Perkins

    (Department of Primary Care and Mental Health, Institute of Population Health Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3GF, UK)

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic forced rapid innovative change to healthcare delivery. Understanding the unique challenges faced by staff may contribute to different approaches when managing future pandemics. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 21 staff from a Community Mental Health Team in the North West of England, UK, three months after the first wave of the pandemic. Thematic analysis was used to examine data reporting the challenges arising when working to deliver a service during the pandemic. Data is discussed under four headings; “senior trust managers trying to make it work”, “individuals making it work”, “making it work as a team”, and “making it work through working at home”. Clear communication was essential to ensure adherence to guidelines while providing safe care delivery. The initial response to the pandemic involved the imposition of boundaries on staff by senior leadership to ensure that vulnerable service users received a service while maintaining staff safety. The data raises questions about how boundaries were determined, the communication methods employed, and whether the same outcome could have been achieved through involving staff more in decision-making processes. Findings could be used to design interventions to support mental health staff working to deliver community services during future crises.

Suggested Citation

  • Leanne Burton & Abbie Wall & Elizabeth Perkins, 2022. "Making It Work: The Experiences of Delivering a Community Mental Health Service during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-15, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12056-:d:923422
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12056/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12056/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2017.304051_2 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Bensimon, Cécile M. & Tracy, C. Shawn & Bernstein, Mark & Shaul, Randi Zlotnik & Upshur, Ross E.G., 2007. "A qualitative study of the duty to care in communicable disease outbreaks," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(12), pages 2566-2575, December.
    3. Wray, R.J. & Becker, S.M. & Henderson, N. & Glik, D. & Jupka, K. & Middleton, S. & Henderson, C. & Drury, A. & Mitchell, E.W., 2008. "Communicating with the public about emerging health threats: lessons from the pre-event message development project," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 98(12), pages 2214-2222.
    4. Savoia, E. & Lin, L. & Bernard, D. & Klein, N. & James, L.P. & Guicciardi, S., 2017. "Public Health System Research in Public Health Emergency Preparedness in the United States (2009-2015): Actionable Knowledge Base," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 107(S2), pages 1-6.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kai Chen & Xiaoping Lin & Han Wang & Yujie Qiang & Jie Kong & Rui Huang & Haining Wang & Hui Liu, 2022. "Visualizing the Knowledge Base and Research Hotspot of Public Health Emergency Management: A Science Mapping Analysis-Based Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-23, June.
    2. Schoch-Spana, Monica & Ravi, Sanjana J. & Martin, Elena K., 2022. "Modeling epidemic recovery: An expert elicitation on issues and approaches," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    3. Kott, Anne & Limaye, Rupali J., 2016. "Delivering risk information in a dynamic information environment: Framing and authoritative voice in Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and primetime broadcast news media communications during the 2014," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 169(C), pages 42-49.
    4. Jing Liu & Yujie Wang & Qian Zhang & Jianxiang Wei & Haihua Zhou, 2022. "Scientometric Analysis of Public Health Emergencies: 1994–2020," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-15, January.
    5. Mohamed Nour & Mohd Alhajri & Elmoubasher A. B. A. Farag & Hamad E. Al-Romaihi & Mohamed Al-Thani & Salih Al-Marri & Elena Savoia, 2017. "How Do the First Days Count? A Case Study of Qatar Experience in Emergency Risk Communication during the MERS-CoV Outbreak," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-16, December.
    6. Simon, Tomer & Goldberg, Avishay & Adini, Bruria, 2015. "Socializing in emergencies—A review of the use of social media in emergency situations," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 609-619.
    7. Julia M. Pearce & Lasse Lindekilde & David Parker & M. Brooke Rogers, 2019. "Communicating with the Public About Marauding Terrorist Firearms Attacks: Results from a Survey Experiment on Factors Influencing Intention to “Run, Hide, Tell” in the United Kingdom and Denmark," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 39(8), pages 1675-1694, August.
    8. Ingrid Gilles & Cédric Mabire & Margaux Perriraz & Isabelle Peytremann-Bridevaux, 2021. "Workplace Well-Being and Intent to Stay by Health Care Workers Reassigned during the First COVID-19 Wave: Results of a Swiss Survey," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(17), pages 1-13, August.
    9. Bevaola Kusumasari & Nias Phydra Aji Prabowo, 2020. "Scraping social media data for disaster communication: how the pattern of Twitter users affects disasters in Asia and the Pacific," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 103(3), pages 3415-3435, September.
    10. Kate R. Smith & Silvia Grant & Robert E. Thomas, 2022. "Testing the public’s response to receiving severe flood warnings using simulated cell broadcast," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 112(2), pages 1611-1631, June.
    11. Bensimon, Cécile M. & Smith, Maxwell J. & Pisartchik, Dmitri & Sahni, Sachin & Upshur, Ross E.G., 2012. "The duty to care in an influenza pandemic: A qualitative study of Canadian public perspectives," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2425-2430.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12056-:d:923422. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.