Carolina Stress Initiative recruiting health care workers for study to develop better mental health therapies

The threat was very real, yet invisible, requiring layers of personal protective equipment as well as strict protocols. "We were preparing for it, but we were never really sure what to expect," said UNC medical intensive care physician Dr. Bradley Drummond.

He says he and medical staff were accustomed to helping very sick patients. "The uncertainty part was the piece that added a lot of stress," said Dr. Drummond. He added, the effort required working together as a team. "We really had to rely on each other," he said.

He said staff had to rely on recommended strict infection prevention protocols for their safety, which turned out to be very effective. However, there were still worries about unknowingly contracting the virus and spreading it to others. They also feared bringing the illness home to loved ones.

The prolonged mental health impact on health care workers is the focus of the Carolina Stress Initiative. "(To) better understand how stress affects our brains," explained UNC Psychiatrist Dr. Anthony Zannas. He is partnered with Dr. Jose Rodriguez-Romaguera, an assistant professor in UNC psychiatry.

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Zannas says healthcare workers will be recruited this September. Part of the study involves exposing participants to a video that includes footage from actual traumatized health care providers during the pandemic. "We will record how healthcare providers respond to this material," said Dr. Zannas.

He says they can track several bio-markers to help them predict how the workers’ mental health will evolve over time. The goal is to develop better ways to treat stress and anxiety. For medical workers, recovery may be a slow process.

"It’s hard to predict how also the mental health will return back to normal, our lifestyles will completely turn back to normal," said Zannas.

Shay Greene, director of pastoral care at the Chapel Hill hospital described her memories of seeing how difficult it was for health care staff to perform as the pandemic lingered. "It was a distressing time and I would say that that added to moral injury and moral distress of health care workers," said Greene.

Due to PPE equipment being reserved for medical providers in patient areas, she says she and her staff had to turn to "virtual" care to reach patients and their families as well as medical staff to begin the healing.

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"So finding ways to get this complicated grief out and expressed is going to be very essential for health care workers so that we can move forward with healthy spirits," said Greene.