The Qatari Forum for Authors, in cooperation with the Family Affairs Department at the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs, held a scientific course entitled “Psychological Resilience” through the Microsoft Teams program presented by Dr. Khaled Ahmed Abdul Jabbar, Consultant Psychiatrist and Cognitive Behavior Therapist. In this session he discussed the topic of “Psychological Resilience of Health Practitioners and Caregivers in Early Grades” .
This meeting is considered the sixth of this context within the framework of cooperation between the Forum and the family affairs administration, which was presented during this period due to the importance of acquiring psychological flexibility from all segments of society during crises in order to reach a healthy and productive society.
Dr. Abdul-Jabbar stressed the importance of the mental health of the individual and society during crises, as it is no less important than the importance of health and physical safety, and its great role in the quality of life cannot be overlooked, reducing the dangers of psychological and professional burnout and improving individual productivity and work quality. The health practitioner needs psychological flexibility as the ordinary citizen needs to develop himself and his ability to face life challenges, pointing out that every person has combined the two extremes in all aspects of his personality, whether positive or negative, and the same applies to society, which is always divided in times of crises into two parts, one side overly optimistic and another part pessimistic about excess, because of the nature of the work of the health practitioner who closely follows the events and developments in times of crisis, especially because of his interview with many cases of patients, it is usually from the pessimistic side and stresses cause him what is called psychological deficiencies, which is deepened because of the society’s view of them at times as carriers of infection.
There is even research conducted on a number of health practitioners in previous pandemic cases, which proved that the health practitioner feels fear and hesitation before going to work, and this is not evidence of his lack of humanity, patriotism, or conscience, but rather a natural feeling, and this fear continues with him even after returning to his home for fear of transmitting the infection to his family. From here comes the importance of providing them with a psychological resilience course with privacy commensurate with their efforts, dedication and arduous tasks, to reduce the pressures and negative impacts associated with them, and psychologists and social workers will have many skills that can be applied with support seekers from the community in general, health practitioners and support providers in particular.
There are studies that talked about the importance of acquiring psychological resilience for workers during epidemics by training to acquire skills and provide psychological support to them and their families.
The psychological pressures imposed by the nature of work may cause emotional and functional burnout due to excessive stress as a result of empathy for the situations they face and affect their practical practice and even their family life.
The psychiatry specialist defined psychological flexibility as a set of behavioral, functional and emotional skills, and the ability to cope with colleagues and to overcome crisis, as it is the ability of the individual to cope with the difficulties of life in light of difficult social conditions, severe tribulations and crises,
with effective maintaining their psychological state in a good way and psychological resilience is not a superpower or a rare value, but rather the entirety of skills that can be acquired and developed, so flexibility must be viewed as a skill maturity process and not a quality.
People with psychological resilience are people who live with an optimistic and positive thought and approach. With the passage of time and persistence, they can balance their negative emotions with positive ones and live in inner peace. And the best solution to overcome the current crisis and to avoid burning is compassion between colleagues and compassion by the administration and the expression of feelings and ideas and the branching of negative feelings. The guest of the Forum gave some examples about cases of health practitioners who were exposed to high pressures that made them think about resigning, but the flexibility of the administration that granted them leave instead of accepting resignation, it provided an opportunity to rest, accept the situation, and then return to work.
He pointed out that psychological flexibility requires adherence to several conditions, the most important of which are knowledge of values and their practising, acceptance and commitment, cognitive and behavioral correction, ego monitoring, mature defense mechanisms, cognitive and behavioral correction, trust in managing relationships and building strong and stable relationships, especially team work and expanding relationship spaces, emphasizing in the same context that cognitive behavioral therapy is the most effective form of psychotherapy, which has been proven by research and studies in a variety of mental disorders, as well as its therapeutic techniques have been used in guidance and counseling and providing psychological support to those who need it.
The interest in cognitive behavioral therapy was not a coincidence, but rather a validation of the idea that people are not disturbed by the events, but by the thoughts associated with these events.
The Cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) process begins by urging the patient to challenge his negative beliefs about the self, the world and others, as well as helping him to identify how and what he believes and the other six keys related to inferences, action and its impact on emotions, positive or negative.
It is noticeable that this training began on Sunday, June 14 and runs until Tuesday, July 16, at a rate of one hour every day, and targets health practitioners, front-line caregivers, doctors, psychosocial specialists who work in providing support and support.