The COVID-19 pandemic has put immense pressure on frontline and public health workers, exacerbating myriad mental health concerns, including stress, depression, and burnout.
As with COVID-19 itself, impacts have disproportionately affected certain populations more likely to hold frontline positions, including women, LatinX people, and people of color.
These challenges, compounded with broader issues affecting the workforce, undermine the capacities of frontline and public health workers to provide essential services. Key strategies for supporting frontline and public health workers include building a culture of caring across leadership and organizations, improving employment practices and working conditions, and fostering social support among workers.
Supporting the health and well-being needs of workers is essential for developing and diversifying the public health workforce, and strengthening our public health system. Improving job quality and working conditions, and ensuring a living wage for frontline and public health workers which can address socioeconomic and health inequities that these workers face.
This webpage serves as a guide to help state and local leaders and allies advance urgent health equity priorities as part of COVID-19 response and recovery efforts. The guide is organized into six guiding principles for supporting a community-based workforce.
This library provides resources and trainings to help public health workers build resilience.
This webpage discusses strategies that can be adopted by healthcare leaders to support frontline workers. It provides a list of such strategies and explains the pathways in which they can promote a supportive work environment.
This article discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health workers. It describes pathways by which the pandemic has affected rates of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health concerns in that demographic. Healthcare worker perspectives are provided.
This study used data from the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey in 2017 and 2021 to analyze the size and composition of the state and local ...
This edition of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice includes several articles discussing the needs and interests of the public health workfo...
PH WINS is the first and only nationally representative source of data on the people that make up the governmental public health workforce. It captures their...
This report documents the key findings of the 2021 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS). The survey provides data on workforce demogr...
This brief details an analysis, informed by the COVID-19 pandemic, that was completed to estimate the number of state and local public health department staf...
This webpage provides resources for engaging a community health worker workforce.
Using findings from the 2021 Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS), this brief describes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on&#...
This article shares the stories of community health workers in Malawi, who continued serving their communities during the COVID-19 pandemic even with PPE cha...
This article from the president of Grant Makers in Health acts as a call to action for the philanthropic field to help support the needs of workers and addre...
This podcast shares public health officials experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they have been targeted by protestors and laws to limit their po...
This story provides insights into the experiences of community health workers in low-and middle-income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically t...
This fact sheet provides information regarding how to amplify the work of community health workers in the response to COVID-19.
This fact sheet provides insight into the best resources and biggest challenges in community
This fact sheet outlines the ways in which community health workers play a part in the capacity of the public health system, specifically during the COVID-19...
This webpage outlines the COVID-19 Action Fund for Africa (CAF-Africa), a collaboration of 30+ organizations for the purpose of supplying community health wo...
This webpage is a collection of resources that can be used to help public health workers build resilience in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, including fac...
This report summarizes survey findings of legal protections for public health workers, including criminal statutes punishing individuals who impede public he...
This article advocates for the strengthening of the public health workforce. It provides background and contextual information on the workforce itself, refer...
This infographic suggests that composition of numbers of workers, competency of workers, contextual environment and work environment are the factors affectin...
This guide is designed to help employers protect workers who are unvaccinated, including people who are not fully vaccinated.
This website provides a collection of stories and articles promoting mental health and wellness in the workplace for frontline workers. They help both indivi...
This webpage discusses the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the effect of healthcare worker burnout in female healthcare professionals. It reviews...
This webpage discusses the mental health issues facing healthcare workers in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is a personal account of challenges spec...
This article discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of healthcare workers. The article explores the effects of the COVID-19 pande...
This article discusses the medical burnout health care providers are experiencing during the COVID-19 pandemic and suggests five practical changes that can b...
This video highlights the mental health impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the public health workforce, including top-level results from a new CDC study...
This audio recording includes discussion about the state of our public health workforce with Jennifer Horney of the University of Delaware and Lisa Macon Har...
This journal article provides a review of the existing literature on burnout in the healthcare worker population in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through...
This article discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health workers. It describes pathways by which the pandemic has affected rates of depres...
This article discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black healthcare workers. It provides a description of the unique challenges facing Black healt...
This webinar introduces participants and viewers to methods and tools that can be used to increase resiliency in public health professionals. The discussion ...
This article discusses the nationwide impact of COVID-19 on school nurses. It describes how school nurses’ jobs have changed in light of the COVID-19 ...
This article discusses the mental health challenges facing public health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides contextual understanding of the wo...
This webpage discusses organizational strategies that could be used to protect healthcare workers, prevent burnout and other mental health concerns. Seven ti...
This webpage provides information on the mental health risks facing frontline and healthcare workers due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It provides background inf...
This webpage discusses strategies that can be adopted by healthcare leaders to support frontline workers. It provides a list of such strategies and explains ...
This news article describes the stress and mental health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare workers within hospital systems. It provides a health...
This webpage provides an introduction and statistical information on essential workers’ risks of developing or currently having an undiagnosed mental ...
This article discusses nurses’ approach to managing and mitigating the risks of COVID-19 within the school system. It emphasizes the unique positionin...
This webpage examines the opioid overdose epidemic as a case study in compassion fatigue during public health epidemics.
This webinar shares results from a national survey on criminal statutes that protect public health officials, analyzes burnout and employee turnover, and dis...
This is a report describing ways in which the American Medical Association is supporting healthcare workers in light of increasing rates of burnout and other...
This webpage introduces a report from the National Academy of Medicine, advocating for prioritization of clinician mental health to reduce rates of burnout. ...
This report provides a national summary of the preliminary results of the American Medical Association (AMA) ‘Coping with COVID-19 for Caregivers ...
This journal article provides information on the current understanding of healthcare worker response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It also discusses ways in whic...
This journal article provides data on the impact of race and gender on mental
This journal article discusses the importance of making healthcare worker mental health a public health priority. It reviews the literature and also provides...
This journal article presents data regarding the incidence and prevalence of burnout in nurses. It discusses the root causes of burnout in nurses and the imp...
This journal article provides an introduction to research on healthcare workers’ attitude and coping mechanisms in facing risks inherent to COVID-19. ...
This journal article provides a systematic review of the existing literature on compassion fatigue and healthcare worker burnout. It emphasizes and explains ...
This journal article aims to identify the causes of occupational stress and burnout in women in medicine, nursing and other health professions during the COV...
This journal article provides background information and data concerning the mental health status and needs of frontline and social care workers in the UK. T...
This journal article evaluates the burnout prevalence among healthcare workers (HCWs) in intensive care units (ICUs) and emergency departments (EDs) during t...
This journal article discusses how implementing prevention and control practices that eliminate, reduce, and manage factors that cause or contribute to publi...
This journal article discusses how government agencies around the world struggle to retain frontline workers as high job demands and low job resources contri...
This journal article discusses updated prevalence estimates for depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among health care workers duri...
This journal article provides a comprehensive view of how stress and burnout during the pandemic have impacted healthcare team members.
This journal article highlights how individual and organizational aspects of the COVID-19 response impacted mental health, as well as strengths, weaknesses, ...
This journal article studies the rate and degree of burnout present in the emergency department (ED) staff at St. James hospital Dublin (SJH) and at Cork Uni...
This data bank tracks the exits of state and local public health officials during the coronavirus pandemic
This blog discusses the various elements that contribute to frontline worker burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This report details how COVID-19 has amplified preexisting challenges of burnout and distress and provides a list of proactive approaches that healthcare org...
This article discusses the burnout crisis among frontline medical staff and public health workers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The story also discus...
This report highlights the need to better define who frontline workers are in order to prioritize their safety and determine the cost and eligibility for pan...
This story discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health officials and the attitudes that the public holds towards them. It outlines how bac...
This article discusses how the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is now committing $100 million to address health care worker shortages through t...
This article explains how school nurses have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
This library provides resources and trainings to help public health workers build resilience.
This webpage highlights actions that peers can take to help frontline workers cope with stress during COVID-19.
This story describes how burnout is affecting health care workers which in turn affects patient care. It explores solutions and implementing staff ideas for ...
The article outlines the impacts of burnout and stress on health care workers. It describes effects on physicians and residents, disproportionate impacts amo...
This article explains the challenges facing public health departments as it pertains to burnout, harassment, and pay cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This article describes the mental health impacts of burnout among health care workers and steps health care leaders can take to implement changes.
This blog explains the impact of burnout on clinicians and their view on the most pressing challenges.
This story gives examples of recent legislation aimed at weakening
Using insight from Scripps Health, this article explores evidence-based strategies for building trust among physicians, staff, and patients during the pandem...
This slide deck discusses the role of community health workers (CHWs) in Black communities, how to support CHWs with addressing COVID-19, and the importance ...
This slide deck presents lessons learned from community health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this webinar, Bob Okun and Marie Dyak host a discussion with panelists about mental health following the COVID-19 pandemic from multiple perspectives of t...
This website is intended for caregivers to help ensure the health and safety of caregivers and their loved ones. It provides resources on how to build person...
This document is intended for workers, their advocates and allies, and policymakers to help ensure worker safety and health during the COVID-19 pandemic. It ...
This article explores the interpersonal and structural violence that may take place in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic; it explains the various social forces t...
This article discusses how COVID-19 pandemic quarantine measures and stay-at-home orders have affected adolescent mental health, with a focus on nonsuicidal ...
This article reveals the inequitable burden of COVID-19 on front-line health workers, especially people of color. It also highlights the importance of access...
This article examines how the COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in the prevalence and severity of alcohol use disorder. It also provides recommendatio...
This Congressional briefing is intended to help improve understanding of the policies and programs that impact mental health and substance use systems in the...
This annual report is part of the Pain in the Nation report series, and presents data on mental health and wellbeing in the United States. It examines trends...
This webpage is intended to support the work of community health workers (CHWs) by providing resources on personal protection, COVID-19 safety practices, how...
This webinar features guest speaker, Cosette Taillac, who shares insights on the impact of COVID-19 on the workforce, the power of a psychologically healthy ...
This webinar features Dr. Jennifer Christian-Herman and Dr. Anand Shah, who examine the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health and offer strategies and tips...
The article provides recommendations for how to maintain social connections during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also discusses mental health support lines, spec...
This article focuses on the inequities and structural risk factors that have caused essential workers, communities of color, and marginalized communities to ...
This webpage serves as a guide to help state and local leaders and allies advance urgent
This white paper outlines best practices and solutions for health departments engaging community health workers on the frontlines to address equity gaps...
Community Health Workers partner with community members to advance health and well-being, elevating the wisdom of communities and the expertise of residents ...
The public health workforce plays an essential role in securing the vital conditions for health and well-being for all to thrive. A skilled, resourced, and robust public health workforce is needed to meet the demands of public health today and prepare for the needs of tomorrow. A diverse public health workforce is better equipped to address the needs of the most impacted and marginalized, and implement population health strategies. COVID-19 has shed light on challenges facing the public health workforce, while also exacerbating them. The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the need to skill up the workforce; support workers’ needs; center equity in workforce development efforts; and plan for the future.