UC Merced

This study examines the types of stress public health staff experienced while working during the global COVID-19 pandemic and how they handled these experiences of stress. We aim to explore the stress and mental health implications of public health staff working in the health sector during the pandemic. This study focuses on the essential public health workforce located in California’s San Joaquin Valley, where consistently under-funded and under resourced local health departments operate in politically conservative rural communities. Data for this qualitative study were collected between November 2020 to February 2021 using semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of public health practitioners. Interviews sought to learn about how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted public health staff in the San Joaquin Valley. Analysis of interviews identified three major sources of stress related to public health staff’s roles and work environment in the San Joaquin Valley during the COVID-19 pandemic. These included (1) sources of stress in the workplace; (2) sources of stress beyond the workplace; and (3) how public health staff coped with experiences of stress. Sub-themes address shifts in job responsibilities, occupational safety concerns, and the effects of financial vulnerability from COVID-19 as sources of stress; experiences of stress that transcended beyond the workplace included navigating relationships among family and friends who do not support public health mandates and receiving criticism from the community and general public for public health’s role during the pandemic; and resources provided through work or support from interpersonal relationships as essential to their ability to cope with the stress. Mental health outcomes were a major concern among frontline essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health staff, despite their essential role in pandemic response, have been largely invisible in media depictions of “front-line” workers. Our research highlights the conditions of stress experienced by public health staff who worked in rural local health departments in California’s San Joaquin Valley, and the resources utilized to address this stress.