Care for Staff: A Novel Technical Assistance Approach to Promote Occupational Mental Health Among Healthcare Workers in Lower and Middle Income Country Settings

Abstract

Background: Healthcare workers (HCWs) in lower- and middle-income countries (LMICs) face unique, intersectional threats to their mental health at work. Despite the existence of recommendations for multi-tiered interventions to promote and protect occupational mental health for HCWs, there remain significant challenges to implementation worldwide.

Methods: FHI 360, a global development organization, developed a novel technical assistance framework to accompany partners, including government and healthcare leaders to design, implement, improve, or evaluate any mental health and psychosocial support intervention. The EpiC Project, implemented by FHI 360, has utilized this framework in four countries (Vietnam, Philippines, Paraguay and Sri Lanka) specifically to guide the development of locally adapted occupational mental health interventions for HCWs.

Findings: Each country applied this framework in various project cycle phases and in their unique local contexts; all countries reported positive developments in the advancement of their chosen interventions.

Conclusions/application to practice: With the application of an adaptable, evidence-based technical assistance framework to guide collaborative consultation for project design, implementation, improvement, and/or evaluation, locally led teams pivoted from a solely "mental health" approach to more comprehensive, evidence-based interventions that framed mental health for HCWs as an occupational health priority. This allowed for teams advising interventions in LMICs to consider unique workplace, structural and policy-level factors rather than focusing solely on individual mental health strategies.

Keywords: global mental health; healthcare workers; mental health; occupational health.