Covid-19 is helping to destigmatize mental healthcare in Africa – Quartz Africa

Laide Akinsemoyin has been working as a volunteer doctor in an isolation ward for coronavirus patients in Lagos, Nigeria since April. Each day, before her shift, she has to enter a donning room, to slowly and carefully put on the personal protective equipment that stands between her and possible infection from Covid-19.

Akinsemoyin previously worked as a general practitioner in private practice. Since starting in the isolation ward, she says, the biggest adjustment has been building pauses into her workto make sure she has on her PPE before rushing to a patient in distress, for example, or to consider which procedures she cant do because of the risks involved.

The way you move, the way you interact, the things you would normally do by rote as a regular doctor in an emergency situation, in this instance you cant, Akinsemoyin says. Youre constantly having to revise the way you do things and still give patients the best care.

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Covid-19 is helping to destigmatize mental healthcare in Africa - Quartz Africa