Perceptions, experiences and symptoms of mental health conditions of governmental public health workers in New Jersey post COVID-19 pandemic
Creators: name: Harrison-Gulla, Lisa A.
Publisher: name: No Publisher Supplied
Year: 2024

description: The public health workforce in the United States, including New Jersey, has worked tirelessly over the last three years in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Much like the general public, members of the public health workforce have reported increased feelings of stress, anxiety, and burnout during this time period. Nationally, there have been studies conducted during the course of the COVID-19 pandemic to collect demographic, competency, and self-reported mental health status data in regard to anxiety, depression, and burnout; however, most of the members of the governmental public health workforce in New Jersey (NJ) were not part of these assessments. To gain a better understanding of the demographic, mental health status, and opinions on the effect of the pandemic response of the local New Jersey governmental public health workforce, a survey was conducted. The final survey included questions from the Public Health Workforce Interest and Needs Survey (PH WINS), the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) assessment, the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OBI) within the Jobs Demands-Resource theoretical framework.The survey responses provide a clearer picture of the NJ governmental public health workforce demographically, by tenure, and reported workforce development needs with responses from 204 individuals representing 20 of the 21 counties in New Jersey. The survey respondents were predominantly white females between the ages of 25 and 60 years old. NJ’s governmental public health workforce is much smaller than those across the country and a majority of respondents serve larger communities with less staff than their national counterparts. There is also a distinct gap in tenure with the majority of respondents working either less than five or more than twenty years in the field. Additionally, respondents are more highly educated than the national average and many have degrees specific to public health.The survey results demonstrated that the New Jersey governmental public health workforce’s self-reported mental health conditions were affected by a variety of factors including job satisfaction, organizational satisfaction, bullying and harassment, and supportive supervisors and leadership. Nearly 25% of respondents rated their mental/emotional well-being as fair or poor with about 20% reporting symptoms consistent with anxiety, depression, or burnout. Exhaustion, one of two conditions shown to contribute to burnout, was reported by 88% of the respondents.The data indicate that New Jersey governmental public health workers experienced an increase in symptoms related to anxiety, depression, and burnout post-pandemic. These symptoms were correlated with survey respondents’ self-reported assessment of the quality of their work-related conditions. Recommendations for future research include conducting focus groups and key informant interviews to further explore factors impacting conditions. Recommendations made based upon the analysis of data as opportunities for improvement spanned across four distinct areas funding, training, mental health, and policy development.