Resources from professional groups
- Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience. Created by the National Academy of Medicine in 2017, the Action Collaborative comprises more than 60 organizations committed to reversing trends in clinician burnout. In response to the pandemic, the group has compiled a list of strategies and resources to support the health and well-being of clinicians who are providing healthcare during the COVID-19 outbreak.
- American Medical Association. The AMA has created a resource center dedicated to providing care for caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The website includes specific guidance for managing mental health during the pandemic.
- American College of Physicians. The professional society of internal medicine physicians has created a comprehensive guide for physicians specific to COVID-19, with a section dedicated to clinician well-being that includes information about hotlines, counseling services, grief support, and more.
- American Hospital Association. The AHA’s website now includes regularly updated resources for healthcare clinicians and staff, as well as a special section dedicated to protecting and enabling healthcare workers in the midst of the pandemic.
Virtual psychological counseling
Not unlike the way telemedicine has allowed some physicians to keep seeing their patients, many modalities enable participation in therapy through video, chat, phone call, or any combination thereof. Look for a service that is convenient, flexible, and HIPAA compliant.
Traditional in-office mental health therapy has quickly moved to telemedicine. Many if not most insurers that cover counseling visits are paying for telepsychiatry or telecounseling. If you don’t know of an appropriate therapist, check the American Psychiatric Association or its state chapters; the American Psychological Association; or look for a licensed mental health counselor.
Because financial constraints are a potential barrier to therapy, Project Parachute, in cooperation with Eleos Health, has organized a cadre of therapists willing to provide pro bono online therapy for health care workers. The amount of free therapy provided to qualified frontline workers is up to the individual therapists. Discuss these parameters with your therapists up front.
Similar services are offered from companies such as Talkspace and BetterHelp on a subscription basis. These services are typically less expensive than in-person sessions. Ask about discounts for healthcare workers. Talkspace, for example, announced in March, “Effective immediately, healthcare workers across the country can get access to a free month of our...online therapy that includes unlimited text, video, and audio messaging with a licensed therapist.”
Online support groups and social media
For more on-demand peer support, look for groups such as the COR Sharing Circle for Healthcare Workers on Facebook. The site’s search engine can point users to plenty of other groups, many of which are closed (meaning posts are visible to members only).
Dr. Mehta hosts her own Facebook group called Physician Community. “I would like to think (and genuinely feel) that we’ve been doing a great job of supporting each other there with daily threads on challenges, treatments, pick-me-ups, vent posts, advocacy, and more,” she said.
For anyone in need, PeerRxMed is a free, peer-to-peer program for physicians and other health care workers that is designed to provide support, connection, encouragement, resources, and skill-building to optimize well-being.
For those craving spiritual comfort during this crisis, a number of churches have begun offering that experience virtually, too. First Unitarian Church of Worcester, Massachusetts, for example, offers weekly services via YouTube. Similar online programming is being offered from all sorts of organizations across denominations.