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KOTA KINABALU: Health workers in Sabah who are fighting hard against the Covid-19 pandemic are screened from time to time for mental health problems to ensure their safety, says Sabah Minister of Housing and Local Government Datuk Masidi Manjun.
Masidi, who is also the official spokesperson for the Sabah state government on Covid-19, said that any detected mental health issues among healthcare workers would be referred to the relevant parties, including psychologists, to ensure the issue is resolved. handle and resolve well.
“The Sabah State Department of Health has taken several measures especially to detect mental health problems (among health workers) so that they can be overcome and not affect their functions.
“In addition to that, health workers can also directly contact the Psychosocial Support Line created by the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support Service (MHPSS) to get help in mental health,” he said at his daily press conference here last night. .
He said this while answering a question on the call by the Sabah Medical Services Union (SMSU) to improve measures and strategies to take care of the mental health of healthcare workers currently facing difficult challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Masidi said that the Sabah State Department of Health also made sure that all health workers were prepared for the challenge, including by providing them with information about their duties and what they were expected to face.
“Before moving into a red zone, personnel will receive a ‘pre-deployment’ briefing, then while on duty they will receive an ‘internal briefing’ from time to time, and then the ‘post-deployment’ briefing. to ensure that your mental health is always maintained.
“In addition to that, each unit chief is also responsible for establishing the schedule so that health personnel have adequate rest and are not stressed in the performance of their duties,” he said.
He said that if there was a shortage of health workers in an area, especially a red zone, the department would immediately mobilize staff from the green or yellow zone areas to make sure that staff were not overloaded.
“When these health workers are sick, they must be treated immediately, so this mobilization is important to ensure that the responsibilities of sick health workers can be assumed immediately and effectively. With this measure, we ensure that the effectiveness of the fight against Covid-19 is not reduced, “he said.
Responding to the issue of the payment of subsidies and freezing of leave of health workers that it was feared would affect their motivation, Masidi hoped that it could be resolved at the departmental level, with a situation of mutual benefit for all parties involved.Called
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