More than half of U.S. public health workers have developed a mental health condition during the COVID-19 pandemic, a new report suggests.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that 53 percent of workers say they have had symptoms of at least one condition in the preceding two weeks.
About one-third each report symptoms of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - and nearly 10 percent were thinking about or planning suicide.
Workers who were younger, unable to take time off from their jobs, or were working more than 60 hours a week were more likely to say they have a mental health condition.
The CDC says hiring more people and encouraging workers to take regular breaks or vacations could help drive down the prevalence of mental health symptoms.
A new CDC report found that 36.8% of public health workers were experiencing PTSD, 32% were experiencing depression, 30.3% reported anxiety and 8.4% reported suicidal ideation
Common traumatic events and stressors included overwhelmed by workload or family/work balance, bullied or harassed because of work, or receiving job-related threats (file image)
It's been well-documented that frontline health care workers have been increasingly reporting mental health conditions during the pandemic.
Therefore, it would stand to reason that public health workers might face a similar risk due to having to respond to the pandemic for more than a year.
Unlike the medical field, in which doctors and nurses treat people who are sick and injured, public health workers' main goals are to prevent disease and injury.
This includes scientists tracking sources of disease, nutritionists suggesting healthy eating habits, sanitarians making sure people have clean drinking water, lab technicians testing specimens for contamination and more.
For the analysis, published on Friday in the CDC's weekly MMWR report, the team conducted an online survey between March 29, 2021 and April 16, 2021.
Overall 26,174 people from state, tribal, local, and territorial public health departments who worked during 2020 responded to the survey.
Results showed that 53 percent reported having a symptom of at least one mental health condition during the last two weeks.
The most common condition was PTSD with 36.8 percent saying they were experiencing it.
