Cognitive Behavioral Crisis Intervention Model for Health Care Professionals in Pakistan

Abstract

The health care professionals (HCPs) in Pakistan are vulnerable to the negative psychological impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic. The shortage of trained HCPs in Pakistan coupled with vulnerable infrastructure and depleted resources make the situation a source of psychological reactions like fear, anger, anxiety, and depression for HCPs during COVID-19 outbreak. These psychological reactions are produced by the preceding thoughts and emotions according to the cognitive behavioral model. Therefore, a cognitive behavioral crisis intervention model (CBCIM) is proposed with aim of helping HCPs deal with these psychological reactions efficiently. The common components of CBCIM include the cognitive restructuring of the negative thoughts, teaching of relaxation and mindfulness exercises, the teaching of ACT-ADD approach and use of coping cards, district wise team-based action plan and the provision of these services to HCPs regularly even after the end of COVID -19 pandemic.