| dc.description.abstract | Letter to the Editor:
Palestine, a country afflicted by protracted political instability, has suffered vast crises throughout its history. The recent turmoil between Israel and Palestine that started in May 2021 has aggravated the challenges posed by poverty, the COVID-19 pandemic, political occupation, and a deficient healthcare system. As health care is already considered a stressful field, facing this upscale in events not only puts healthcare workers (HCWs) in physical stress but also affects their psychological capability and mental health.
The healthcare system in Palestine already faces shortages in infrastructure and HCWs. This additional psychological pressure will decrease the working efficiency of HCWs. Mental health services in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are based entirely upon community care and are quite limited in terms of the extent of healthcare delivery. The Ministry of Health provides the main services but there are only 13 community mental health clinics. Psychiatric services provided by Ministry of Health include 280 beds in West bank and 39 beds in Gaza. Mental health disorders in Palestine remain underreported and under-treated. These services are unable to meet the burden of need, as there is no proper funding and policy. Concurrently, services have suffered through an upsurge in the demand, lack of latest medications and an ineffective management structure.
In effect of the ongoing political turmoil and conflict, a majority of Palestinian people, especially HCWs, children and young adults are at great risk of developing some form of psychopathology. Research suggests about a third of the Palestinians are in need of mental health services and more than 40% of them suffer from depression. This is due to the ongoing events of violence specifically bombings in civilian areas which compounds the country's challenges such as poverty and social mobility; more than 72,000 people have been displaced because of hostilities in the Gaza strip.
The COVID-19 outbreak added to these problems as HCWs suffered from increased fear of death, burnout, depression and moral distress. In addition, increased rate of infection has created a huge work overload among HCWs leading to severe exhaustion and preventing them from meeting their families. (Continued…) | en_US |
