The decline in the provision of psychosocial services during the COVID-19 pandemic and the barriers to moving to online forms of care from providers' perspectives

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F61989592%3A15210%2F23%3A73619940" target="_blank" >RIV/61989592:15210/23:73619940 - isvavai.cz</a>

Result on the web

<a href="http://aipmel.it/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/GIPMEL-december-2023-106-117.pdf" target="_blank" >http://aipmel.it/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/GIPMEL-december-2023-106-117.pdf</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

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Result language

angličtina

Original language name

The decline in the provision of psychosocial services during the COVID-19 pandemic and the barriers to moving to online forms of care from providers' perspectives

Original language description

According to the WHO, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted or halted critical mental health services in 93% of countries worldwide while the demand for these services continuedto increase. Studies have investigated significant psychological consequences of social isolation and economic insecurity on the population&apos;s mental health. The research evidence points to elevated scores of negative mental health indicators (anxiety, depression, and distress) over time during the pandemic. At the same time, many research findings indicate that substitution in the form of online care delivery is adequate for many client groups. This study aimed to investigate the extent to which the provision of psychosocial services in clinical psychology, school counseling, and social services has changed because of the restrictive measures of the COVID-19 pandemic in Czechia. We were also interested in what barriers to online service provision existed and which clients were considered unsuitable for this form of care from the care providers&apos; perspective. We applied an online survey featuring a 30-item questionnaire with both closed and open questions to the sample of 441 participants selected using purposive sampling through institutions. A comparison of the pre-COVID-19 and COVID-19 operations in the first wave shows significant declines in all services provided across all main areas of psychosocial care. The overall average percentage decline across all outcomes combined was -34%. Given the need for the care shown on the part of the clients, we interpret it as a failure to ensure the availability of care as needed. The most common obstacles of online care mentioned were feeling of the impersonality of the online meeting, lack of a comprehensive visual overview of clients, concerns about maintaining quality standards, the impossibility of physical contact and application of diagnostic methods, internet connection problems, lack of privacy and disturbance by others, absence or poor quality of technical resources, communication misunderstandings due to technology, lack of time to work caused by the pandemic, and inappropriate employer attitudes and regulations.

Czech name

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Czech description

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Type

J_ost - Miscellaneous article in a specialist periodical

CEP classification

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OECD FORD branch

50101 - Psychology (including human - machine relations)

Project

<a href="/en/project/TL04000033" target="_blank" >TL04000033: Options for online psychosocial care in situations requiring limited direct social contact</a><br>

Continuities

P - Projekt vyzkumu a vyvoje financovany z verejnych zdroju (s odkazem do CEP)

Publication year

2023

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Italian Journal of Psychology and Occupational Health

ISSN

2785-1338

e-ISSN

2785-1338

Volume of the periodical

2023

Issue of the periodical within the volume

3

Country of publishing house

IT - ITALY

Number of pages

12

Pages from-to

106-117

UT code for WoS article

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EID of the result in the Scopus database

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