Mental Health Support for the Healthcare Workforce
Join providers and other health leaders coming together from across the country to share ways to proactively support the mental and emotional health of our healthcare workforce during the COVID-19 crisis. Hundreds of people from 11 states and 2 countries have participated.
As healthcare and mental health leaders share implementation strategies and practices in real time, ICSI collects and curates them to build a shared knowledge network and playbook.
Announcing the Mental Health Playbook! 
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Call Report: Wednesday, September 9th | noon-1 pm CT
Jonathan Ripp, MD, MPH, Chief Wellness Officer, Mount Sinai Health System
Key takeaways:
Dr. Ripp has co-authored two important articles, links here:
Other resources shared:
Staff Resources website at Mount Sinai
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Call Report: Wednesday, August 26 | noon-1 pm CT
- More than 2/3 providers in adverse events experience vicarious trauma as a ‘second victim’
- With support after an adverse event, providers move to feeling improved as caregivers; if not, they feel haunted, get re-traumatized
- Tips from the forYOU peer support model - assess your internal resources, how can you harness them? And assess/turn to your community - harness those as well.
- “Asking for help is hard, there’s stigma. That’s why we have to build help into our work, so it’s opt out for people rather than opt in.”
Dr. George Everly, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Medicine
Leadership for Organizational Resiliency, Rapid Psychological First Aid
Dr. Everly supports and trains on crisis intervention and Psychological First Aid in communities and for governmental agencies nationally and internationally. Key takeaways from this webinar include:
- Resiliency CAN be trained and practiced and built in organizations. It starts with leaders, yet can’t rest there.
- Leaders must not wait for certainty. Open communication is imperative: Truthfulness, transparency, and timeliness are watchwords at Johns Hopkins.
- Crisis intervention training like PFA has been shown to have a positive effect 20+years later
The Rapid PFA course Dr. Everly developed and teaches is FREE in 2024 on Coursera: https://www.coursera.org/learn/psychological-first-aid
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Call Report: Wednesday, July 29, 2024
Dr. Liselotte Dyrbye, Mayo Clinic:
Clinician Well-being programs during COVID-19, including new bereavement policy
Dr. Dyrbye presented on the high rate of clinician burnout prior to COVID-19, and that this time of crisis presents a need and opportunity for innovation to take a systems approach to support people:
- Early on in COVID-19 they pushed out general resources, thinking only of frontline providers caring for COVID-19 patients. This was not the best strategy.
- Thus, they have targeted different interventions to different groups. Building some new options and also building out further from existing ones, like scaling up a peer support group in the case of adverse events.
- They also developed a Bereavement Response Plan in the event of an employee death, and for use beyond COVID-19.
Resources Shared:
NOTE from Mental Health Minnesota: COVID Cares support phone line now has a toll-free number: 833-HERE4MN. The line offers free, confidential, anonymous support for healthcare workers, essential personnel and others. Staffed by volunteer mental health professionals, open 9AM to 9PM, seven days / week.
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Call Report: Tuesday, July 14, 2024
Dr. Albert Wu, Johns Hopkins University:
RISE Peer Support Program
- Leadership strategies specific to crises
- A variety of programs to serve all staff; e.g., the RISE program is now getting numerous calls from janitorial, food service, laundry, and other staff who haven’t typically sought emotional support through RISE
- RISE peer support rose to over 2,000 calls/sessions in 100 days over the peak of COVID; more than they served since RISE started in 2011.
- Peer responders (71) are trained in Rapid Psychological First Aid, developed by Dr. George Everly. This online course is free on Coursera.
Call Report: Wednesday, July 1, 2024
Resiliency Rooms - a highly utilized program/space for healthcare workers
This presentation reviewed best practices around resiliency rooms – how to get buy-in from leadership, how to set them up, and how to maintain them. The call highlighted the resiliency rooms that have been created at Children’s MN. These resiliency rooms are located at both hospital campuses and since COVID-19 started, the resiliency rooms have had 10,521 visits to date. In addition, S.E.L.F care plans were introduced as a useful tool to write down triggers and coping strategies, and the Going Home Checklist is another tool intended to help ALL staff reflect and re-center before changing gears for life at home. Overall, the presentation confirmed why Children’s MN peer support program has been such an important resource during COVID.
Presenters:
- Cally Qutechat, On-Site Health and Well-Being Program Manager at HealthPartners
- Kerry Appleton, Clinical Education Specialist at Children’s MN
Resources shared:
Children’s MN - Resiliency Rooms
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Call Report: Wednesday, June 17, 2024
Operationalizing Warmlines: A Panel Conversation
- Jackie Buboltz, Mission Integration Director, West Market, Essentia Health
- Brent Walden, PhD, Chief of Psychology, Hennepin Healthcare
- John Drussell, LICSW, MSW, Mayo Clinic
- Shannah Mulvihill, MA, CFRE, Executive Director, Mental Health Minnesota and Linda Vukelich, Executive Director, Minnesota Psychiatric Society, on COVID Cares line
Resources shared:
Psychological First Aid Training via National Center for PTSD
Hennepin Healthcare Warmline Flyer
COVID Cares website, anonymous, for any healthcare worker, teachers, others
Call Report: Wednesday, June 3, 2024
Leaders from University of Minnesota and MHealth Fairview presented the Minnesota Resilience Action Plan (MinnRAP): Providing Peer and Emotional Support to Frontline Workers. MinnRAP uses a buddy system, a model used by US Army (Battle Buddy) for peer mentoring and support. Having a Buddy helps to:
- Validate experiences
- Identify and address stressors early
- Keep work at work
- Develop and maintain resilience
Click here for implementation tips, literature and more from the team at University of Minnesota.
In light of current events in our community and the nation, the topic of racism and its effect on health was greatly discussed and the group acknowledged the disproportionate impact of COVID deaths on people of color. The group also started out the discussion with how stress impacts brain and ways to manage it individually and collectively.
Call Report: Wednesday, May 20, 2024
- Ryan Pope of Carris Health Redwood presented on Using Feedback to Build Support. Their employee-wide surveys and interview info informed their programming; on-demand resources have been well-utilized and strategic communications have been critical as people have felt overloaded with information. Info on Collective Coping shared with staff has also been useful.
- Dawn Mansergh of HealthPartners presented on Team Debriefing, A Tool for Leaders. Using Psychological First Aid, Critical Incident Stress Debriefing requests have doubled compared to the same period last year.
Call Report: Tuesday, May 5, 2024
- Valerie Longfellow & Michael White of HealthPartners presented on their new Grocery 2 Go program at Regions, implemented to help reduce stress and save time for their staff. Low-stock items like toilet paper and boxes of fresh fruits and veggies are especially popular. CentraCare Health has implemented a similar program.
- Jen Boulton of Vail Place, a community mental health program, presented on their work and the myriad ways they are staying connected in their new virtual world. Staff are reporting feeling more connected than before.
- Gina Dixon of Essentia Health Grief Support Services shared an overview of their services. A peer support program for staff established to provide emotional first aid to help manage stress during crisis has been particularly effective.
SUMMARY OF CALL 5.5
Call Report: Tuesday, April 28, 2024
- Shannah Mulvihill of Mental Health Minnesota presented on their peer support services, including a warmline widely available to the community, and how they are supporting their certified peer support specialists during this time. Warmline use has increased significantly in the last two months, and there is increased need to address social isolation.
- Jodie Dvorkin of ICSI shared advice from health leaders in New York and others on how to support staff during the COVID-19 crisis. Bi-directional communication – asking staff what they need and getting feedback what works, is critical.
- Linda Vukelich of Minnesota Psychiatric Society updated on the COVID Cares mental health helpline for frontline health care workers. Please post the COVID Cares flyer / share broadly with your employees as a resource.
SUMMARY OF CALL 4.28
Call Recording
COVID Cares Flyer
Call Report: Tuesday, April 21, 2024
- Molly Beckstrom and Jennifer Encinger of MHealth-Fairview shared how they have built an internal EAP for providers.
- Quanah Walker of HealthPartners shared supports being rolled out through their wellness programs.
SUMMARY OF CALL 4.21
Call Recording
Call Report: Tuesday, April 14, 2024
On Tuesday, April 14 we dove into ways to determine interventions for specific populations within the workforce.Thank you to Jeff Leichter of Sanford and Lisa Bershok of CentraCare for sharing their work.