Psychosocial Care During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Acute Hospitals

Background:

The COVID-19 pandemic raised new challenges in supporting patients, relatives and staff for psychosomatic, psychiatric and psychological C&L services in general hospitals worldwide. It is intended to build upon the experience gained so far in order to be well prepared for the future.

Objectives:

The aims of this international online survey are

1. To summarize the efforts made in psychosocial care in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2. To assess the experiences made with the established services so far.
3. To assess the need for networking, cooperation and support.
4. Improvement of psychosocial care in acute hospitals in the context of pandemics.

Study Design:

This health services research project will be carried out as an observational study in the form of an international cross-sectional online survey.

There will be one survey time point. Study reporting will follow the STROBE Statement (Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology).

Ethic approval:

In all participating countries the respective ethics committees were informed about the survey and it was checked with them, how far and what kind of country-specific vote of an ethics committee was necessary. Written statements, declarations or votes were obtained from all participating countries.

Setting:

The heads of all psychosomatic, psychiatric and psychological C&L services in acute care hospitals across all participating countries are contacted and asked to participate. Contact is made via the respective national professional societies and relevant working and interest groups.

Participants This study is an international online survey with psychosomatic, psychiatric and psychological C&L services from 14 European countries (Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom) as well as parts of Canada (Quebec and Ontario region) and Iran participating.

Country specific regions:

The national coordinators of the participating country provided lists of specific regions for their respective country following the NUTS logic (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomenclature_of_Territorial_Units_for_Statistics), preferably a NUTS level that leads to 5 - 20 NUTS for each country.

Online survey questionnaire:

Self-developed questionnaire based on relevant literature, own experience and consultation with participating professional societies. The survey contains 25 questions on structural and process variables regarding characterization of the participating C&L services, involvement of the respective hospitals in the physical care of COVID-19 patients, structures / organization of psychosocial care for COVID-19 patients in the participating hospitals, specific psychosocial support for patients, relatives and staff established in the participating hospital in the context of COVID-19, communication - How the different target groups were informed about the COVID-19 related psychosocial support services and offers, burden of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychosocial C&L teams, needs and wishes for the future.

The study questionnaire was translated by a professional company from German into English, French and Italian. Language harmonization and cultural adaptation followed a modified committee-based approach informed by the European Social Survey (ESS) Round 9 Translation Guidelines. Participants are free to choose the language version to be worked on.