Mental Health Impacts on Other Essential Workers

Abstract

The stressors, and subsequent mental health sequelae, associated with being a part of the frontline, patient-facing healthcare response to the COVID-19 pandemic have been clear from the very start of the pandemic. However, a broader group of workers, perhaps typically not considered to be part of the frontlines of a public health emergency response, have also been deemed essential to the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Protective service workers, including law enforcement and emergency services, those working in food production, processing, and dietetics, maintenance and environmental service workers, and laboratory workers are among those unable to work from home, yet potentially unaccustomed to the stressors of being an essential workers during a public health emergency. Changes to many systems – including health insurance and other benefits, provision of personal protective equipment, and prioritizations for vaccinations and other pharmaceutical and nonpharmaceutical interventions – are needed going forward to retain and protect essential workers during future public health emergencies.

Citation

Horney, J.A. (2023), "Mental Health Impacts on Other Essential Workers", Horney, J.A. (Ed.) COVID-19, Frontline Responders and Mental Health: A Playbook for Delivering Resilient Public Health Systems Post-Pandemic, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 199-209. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80262-115-020231013