Venezuela COVID patients, exhausted doctors get mental health help from medical charity

CARACAS, Feb 2 (Reuters) – Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is providing mental health care to COVID-19 patients, their families and also medical staff at two public hospitals in Venezuela to support the country’s deteriorating health system.

They are organizing phone and video calls between the sick and their loved ones and even helping dying patients say goodbye, said Elizabeth Hernández, who is leading the MSF effort at Lidice hospital in Caracas.

She said they are providing individual mental health consultations for doctors and nurses.

“(Time) showed us that staying at home was not so easy, that patients need more than just access to health services,” Hernández said as he waited to start a therapy session with a group of nurses. “Mental health is not always understood.”

The nurses, standing in a circle in a hospital garden, shared the best and worst moments of their week as part of the session. Many of them said the biggest problem was finding time to take breaks to help them deal with the long hours mentally.

MSF has provided mental health support services in two hospitals in the northeast of the capital Caracas since 2020, with nine psychologists offering up to 30 appointments a week, Hernández said.

Since the first cases of coronavirus in Venezuela in March 2020, the South American country has reported 485,974 infections and 5,447 deaths, although critics and academics warn that the numbers could be much higher.

Public hospitals in Venezuela suffer from frequent blackouts and routinely lack running water and basic equipment such as oxygen tanks, according to local medical associations.

The pandemic has taken its toll across Latin America. A study from the University of Chile and Columbia University found high rates of symptoms related to depression, as well as suicidal thoughts and psychological distress among health professionals.

The study, supported by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), was based on interviews with 14,502 health workers in 11 countries, including Venezuela, Brazil and Colombia, PAHO said in a statement last month.

“Exhaustion often wins,” said intensive care doctor Daniel Bruce, who works at Lidice hospital. “But our mental health team has helped us,” he said, referring to MSF staff.

Report by Vivian Sequera Written by Oliver Griffin. Edited by Jane Merriman and Diane Craft

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