Providers of all occupations render crucial care to individuals in high-stress environments while routinely experiencing secondary traumatic stress and compassion fatigue in the course of delivering care. Unaddressed secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and occupational stress can lead to provider burnout and a diminished capacity to provide highly effective care. The ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic has increased the stress and challenges that mental health providers face and place them at greater risk of experiencing burnout. The Mountain Plains MHTTC is committed to supporting and promoting provider well-being, self-care, and resiliency practices to ensure a functional mental and physical health workforce that can effectively respond to the needs of individuals and communities.

Goals to Support Provider Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

The Mountain Plains MHTTC is supporting provider well-being by providing training, technical assistance, and products that:

Free Online Courses with Continuing Education

Ongoing

• Compassion Fatigue On-Demand

Our Products

2021

• Healing Our Protectors: Building Resilience Among Tribal Law Enforcement Officers Through Cultural Interventions
• Building Resilience Among Physical and Behavioral Healthcare Providers During a Global Health Pandemic
• Blog Series: Voices from the Field
• Understanding Anticipatory Anxiety

Our Past Training Events

2021

• Organizational Well-Being in Health Care: A National Symposium
• Building Resilience Among Providers During a Global Health Pandemic (4-Part Series)
• Riding the Wave of Stress and Trauma to Enhance Self-Care
• Responding to Provider Stress and Burnout - Cultivating Hope and Compassion
• Voices from the Field - A Panel Discussion on Well-Being

2020

• Compassion Fatigue: Farm Stress and the Mental Health Provider

Provider Well-Being Resources

There are several existing resources that provide information and context on supporting provider well-being. Some of these resources include:

MHTTC Network Responding to COVID-19 Provider Well-Being

This webpage provides a curated listing of upcoming events, self-paged training, archived training resources and selected SAMHSA publications related to responding to provider well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. The MHTTC Network Coordinating Office updates these resources regularly to highlight training offerings from across the TTC Network.

Professional Quality of Life Measure

The Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL) is a free, publicly available, self-assessment on compassion satisfaction and compassion fatigue. The ProQOL assessment allows individuals to begin examining their own level of compassion fatigue to identify a personal need for self-care.

Wellness Matters: Self-Care for Mental Health Providers

This self-paced course, developed by the Northeast and Caribbean MHTTC, consists of three one-hour modules with interactive exercises and assessments on self-care topics. The three modules cover self-care strategies to survive and thrive, wellness frameworks and strategies, and personal and professional resilience. This course has been pre-approved for Continuing Education credits.

Tips for Healthcare Professionals: Coping with Stress and Compassion Fatigue

This SAMHSA developed tip sheet explores stress and compassion fatigue, as well as signs of distress after a disaster. This tip sheet identifies ways to cope and enhance resilience, along with resources for more information and support.

Preventing and Managing Stress

This SAMHSA developed fact sheet provides tips to help disaster response workers prevent and manage stress while on assignment. It includes strategies to help responders prepare for their assignments, take stress-reducing precautions, and manage stress in the recovery phase.

Organizational Evidence-Based and Promising Practices for Improving Clinician Well-Being

This discussion paper, published November 2020 by the National Academy of Medicine, identifies six domains related to supporting provider well-being within organizations. This paper explores evidence-based and promising practices for organizational leaders to use when supporting provider well-being.

SAMHSA's Disaster Helpline is standing by 24/7 to support you during the pandemic & beyond. Toll-free, multilingual, & confidential support services are available to all residents in the U.S. & its territories. Call: 1-800-985-5990 or text: TalkWithUs to 66746 to connect with a trained counselor.