Table 4 Summary of recommendations

Prevention

 Regular screening of HCWs [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11] (Institutional level)

 Assign mentors for HCWs to exchange knowledge and experience [12,13,14,15] (Institutional level)

 Programs to encourage awareness, build resilience and healthy lifestyle behaviors, study skills, and reduce stigma [1, 2, 4,5,6, 9, 12, 13, 16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38] (Governmental, Community & Institutional levels)

 Reforming institutional policies and facilities to enhance work-life balance and ensure safe work environment [3, 8, 12, 13, 19,20,21,22, 24, 26,27,28,29,30,31,32,33, 35, 36, 38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46] (Institutional level)

 Provide support to ensure financial stability of communities [4] (Governmental & Community levels)

Treatment

 Appropriate psychiatric/religious counselling and mental health services for HCWs at risk of or suffering depression [2, 9, 10, 13, 20, 22, 32, 35, 47,48,49,50,51,52] (Institutional level)

 Governmental level support for healthcare institutional programs [33, 43, 44] (Governmental level)

Research

 Development and use of better diagnostic instruments [8, 50] (Institutional level)

 Further detailed research to study prevalence and consequences of depression [6, 7, 12, 14, 16, 23, 29, 38, 42, 48, 51, 53,54,55] (Governmental & Institutional level)