Telepsychiatry to provide mental health support to healthcare professionals during the covid-19 crisis: A cross-sectional survey among 321 healthcare professionals in france

Abstract

Pandemics are difficult times for the mental health of healthcare professionals, who are more likely to present with PTSD-like symptoms. In the context of a highly contagious communi-cable disease, telemedicine is a useful alternative to usual care, and should be considered as a means to support healthcare professionals’ mental health. This is a multicenter (n = 19), cross-sectional study, based on a 27-item questionnaire, aiming to investigate the acceptability to healthcare workers of a telepsychiatry service as a means of providing mental health support during the COVID-19 pandemic. Between October and December 2020, 321 responses were received, showing that women, caregiving staff, and those directly involved in the care of COVID-19 patients are less fa-vorable to the idea of receiving remote support. In our population, barriers were related to the clinical setting or ethics, and most of the respondents would not accept a drug prescription by telepsy-chiatry. Although telepsychiatry should be a part of the armamentarium of mental health manage-ment, it is not suitable as a stand-alone approach, and should be combined with conventional face-to-face consultations.