The pandemic COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) has had a major global impact on the healthcare systems worldwide as they deal with the surge of critically ill persons. Additionally, the preventative measure of stay-at-home orders and closure of nonessential businesses has caused the disruption of entire communities. The child/youth mental health workforce bears the additional burden of the disruption of the systems-based practice crucial to the successful provision of mental health services. Major sources of stress for the workforce include: (a) a threat to the worker's personal/family health and life (traumatic injury), (b) a loss of colleagues or threat to professional mastery and identity (grief injury), (c) an inner conflict between ones' values and aspirations and what they are able to accomplish in their work (moral injury), and (d) fatigue, simply feeling worn out by the relentless work and need, without time for rest and recovery (fatigue injury). The rapid transformation of the in-person to virtual practice by the implementation of telehealth/telephonic sessions has eroded the boundary between personal/professional life and created a new Zoom fatigue.
Keywords: COVID-19; disaster; mental health; pandemic; stress.
© 2020 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.