KUALA LUMPUR: Faced with burnout and stress during the Covid-19 pandemic, some frontliners turned to the psycho-social helpline, which is a joint collaboration with Mercy Malaysia.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said 17,736 (7.9 per cent) out of 223,990 calls to the helpline were made by frontliners between March 25, 2020, and Sept 19 this year.
"Most of them experienced acute stress and were given Psychological First Aid (PFA) and counselling. Only 0.1 per cent were identified as suffering early signs of depression and referred to specialists (family medicine or psychiatric) for assessment and further treatment," he said in a parliamentary reply to a question from Senator Fadhlina Sidek.
Khairy said the helpline was one of the initiatives for frontliners to boost their morale so they could carry out their duties effectively and efficiently.
He said a study on 6,616 frontliners revealed that 14.2 per cent faced severe mental disorder, 24.7 per cent voiced lack of childcare at home and 16.7 per cent lacked support at the workplace.
He said top management officials would conduct site visits to check on frontliners in terms of mental health, welfare, as well as to motivate and boost their spirit.
He said mental health services and psycho-social support (MHPSS) were established at the federal level, as well as in states, districts, hospitals and health clinics.
"MHPSS teams in states and districts would go to the ground to identify personnel who are in need of Psychological First Aid and further intervention as they are affected emotionally and psychologically.
"Frontliners are also given Mental Health Kits which contains self mental healthcare tips."
In addition, pre-and post-deployment sessions were done periodically as mental health preparations when on duty in the field.
To prevent burnout among the frontliners, team leaders would place staff on rostered duties in rotation to ensure they get enough rest, while they were allowed to take unrecorded leave with the permission of their department head, he said.
He said the ministry was also working with the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry to provide 112 nurseries at hospitals to care for children of frontliners as they have to be on duty to manage the Covid-19 pandemic.
Khairy said mental health components were also included in the MySejahtera application under Digital Health, where users could get information on mental health and self-screening.
He said the government provided various financial and non-financial benefits for frontliners involved directly in Covid-19 management.
Among them were special a Covid-19 allowance (that was raised from RM400 to RM600), special allowance for government staff involved in the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme (NIP) (raised from RM200 to RM600 per month), RM500 one-off payment for officers under Grade 56 and below, exemption from contributing to the Disaster Trust Fund through reduction of entertainment allowances.
He said replacement leave for Health Ministry's frontliners was also extended from six to 18 months from the date of accumulated overtime.
"The extension period applies to overtime accumulated from March 18, 2020 to Dec 31, 2021."