Challenges facing mental health systems arising from the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from 14 European and North American countries /

Janet R Cummings; Xinyue Zhang; Coralie Gandré; Alisha Morsella; Laura Shields-Zeeman; Juliane Winkelmann; Sara Allin; Gonçalo Figueiredo Augusto; Fidelia Cascini; Zoltán Cserháti; Antonio Giulio de Belvis; Astrid Eriksen; Inês Fronteira; Margaret Jamieson; Liubovė Murauskienė; William L Palmer; Walter Ricciardi; Hadar Samuel; Silvia Gabriela Scintee; Māris Taube; Karsten Vrangbæk; Ewout van Ginneken

doi:10.1016/j.healthpol.2023.104878

Title	Challenges facing mental health systems arising from the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from 14 European and North American countries /
Authors	Cummings, Janet R ; Zhang, Xinyue ; Gandré, Coralie ; Morsella, Alisha ; Shields-Zeeman, Laura ; Winkelmann, Juliane ; Allin, Sara ; Augusto, Gonçalo Figueiredo ; Cascini, Fidelia ; Cserháti, Zoltán ; de Belvis, Antonio Giulio ; Eriksen, Astrid ; Fronteira, Inês ; Jamieson, Margaret ; Murauskienė, Liubovė ; Palmer, William L ; Ricciardi, Walter ; Samuel, Hadar ; Scintee, Silvia Gabriela ; Taube, Māris ; Vrangbæk, Karsten ; van Ginneken, Ewout
DOI	10.1016/j.healthpol.2023.104878
Full Text
Is Part of	Health policy.. East Park Shanon : Elsevier Ireland. 2023, vol. 136, art. no. 104878, p. [1-12].. ISSN 0168-8510. eISSN 1872-6054
Keywords [eng]	mental health ; healthcare systems ; health policy ; healthcare reform ; telehealth
Abstract [eng]	We assessed challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic presented for mental health systems and the responses to these challenges in 14 countries in Europe and North America. Experts from each country filled out a structured questionnaire with closed- and open-ended questions between January and June 2021. We conducted thematic analysis to investigate the qualitative responses to open-ended questions, and we summarized the responses to closed-ended survey items on changes in telemental health policies and regulations. Findings revealed that many countries grappled with the rising demand for mental health services against a backdrop of mental health provider shortages and challenges responding to workforce stress and burnout. All countries in our sample implemented new policies or initiatives to strengthen mental health service delivery – with more than two-thirds investing to bolster their specialized mental health care sector. There was a universal shift to telehealth to deliver a larger portion of mental health services in all 14 countries, which was facilitated by changes in national regulations and policies; 11 of the 14 participating countries relaxed regulations and 10 of 14 countries made changes to reimbursement policies to facilitate telemental health care. These findings provide a first step to assess the long-term challenges and re-organizational effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health systems in Europe and North America.
Published	East Park Shanon : Elsevier Ireland
Type	Journal article
Language	English
Publication date	2023
CC license

„Challenges facing mental health systems arising from the COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from 14 European and North American countries /“