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The William Harvey Research Institute - Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry

CoPE-HCP: COVID-19 disease and Physical and Emotional Wellbeing of Health Care Professionals

About the study

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to unprecedented changes to healthcare professionals and the general public. We anticipate that the change in working hours and roles, living environment and increased exposure risk have a negative psychosocial impact on healthcare professionals.

The future mental and physical strain of COVID-19 on healthcare professionals remains unknown. The aim of CoPE-HCP is to study the short and long-term impact of this pandemic on the emotional and physical wellbeing of the healthcare professionals.

This study is conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research ethics committee (REC number 20/EE/0166) and is a registered clinical trial on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04433260)

Why is this important?

Understanding policies and behavioural factors that may impact healthcare professionals is important to guide response to future similar eventualities.  This allows us to design reinforcements to support healthcare professionals in further possible peaks of the current pandemic and future pandemics.

Who can participate?

You can participate if you are over 18 years of age, and:

  • Are a healthcare professional in direct contact with patients
  • Are a hospital/NHS staff in the administrative or other roles, but are NOT in direct contact with patients
  • Are a non-NHS/non-healthcare professional/academic, NOT expected to have contact with patients

If you want to know a bit more about this study, please download our CoPE-HCP Participant Information Sheet [PDF 131KB]

What happens next?

You will be asked a series of questions about your current living and work environment, mood, sleep, stress, anxiety levels and general wellbeing. In addition, we are interested to know if you received adequate supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the training to use these, with appropriate moral support and clinical guidance at work. The initial survey will take approximately 15 minutes, and you do not need to complete in one go. You can continue the survey from where you left provided (i) you use the same device to go back to the survey OR (ii) access a unique link sent to your email address (this can be used from a different device as well) 

Please note that we do not ask for any personal data, except for contact email address, and that too, only if you opt in for follow-up surveys (phase 2). If you agree to share your email address, we will send follow-up surveys at 6 weeks and 4 months from the receipt of your initial survey. Please note that all information provided is confidential, and we will only use the anonymised data for purpose of analysis and research. In case you choose to provide us with your email id, we will only use that to contact you and link your responses in various phases. 

CoPE HCP Available Resources for Participants [PDF 76KB]

We know these are challenging times and some may find this unchartered territory overwhelming. If you have been affected by any of the questions in the survey, or feel that you need support for your emotional wellbeing, you may find some of these resources helpful:

General Information

Good Thinking
Free for Londoners to access and provides support to those who feel anxious, sleep deprived, stressed or sad. The platform has recently been updated with specific resources to support the mental health and wellbeing of Londoners in response to coronavirus which can be found here.

Mind
A website with useful information, advice and support to help cope with stress, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, depression and more.

Some Useful Wellbeing Apps

One You: Every Mind Matters
Every Mind Matters has been created by Public Health England, with tips and advice developed with experts and approved by the NHS to help you discover simple steps to look after your mental health. It has also been endorsed by the Royal College of General Practitioners.

Get started with a short free quiz to create Your Mind Plan: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/your-mind-plan-quiz/)

Down Dog Yoga App
Free to all doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals until July 1st, 2020.

HeadSpace
Popular mindfulness and meditation app free for NHS staff until December 2020.

Useful helplines for support

Samaritans
A free 24-hour support line if you want to talk through your concerns, worries and troubles

Papyrus
An available helpine (Hopeline UK) for young people under the age of 35 experiencing thoughts of suicide, or for anyone concerned that a young person could be thinking about suicide

Targeted Specialist support

Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT)
IAPT is a programme that has transformed the treatment of adult anxiety disorders and depression in England. If you feel you would benefit from counselling or therapy offered by trained clinicians, you can self refer to your local IAPT service. Please click the above link to locate your local service. 

Contact 

For further information about the CoPE-HCP study, please email our research personnel at cope.hcp@qmul.ac.uk; however, please note that if you are concerned about your mental or physical health or any other health-related issue, please contact your GP or occupational health departments.

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