Self-care and well-being aren't about "doing more" or adding to your very full plate. These offerings aim to increase your feelings of connection and hope as well as demonstrate tangible and inspirational ways to care for others and ourselves.
As the behavioral health and mental health workforce in our region continues to provide services during the COVID-19 pandemic, self-care is more essential than ever. We offer these resources and guidance on best self-care practices to give providers the fuel needed to be effective within formal, professional roles. Self-care is about nourishing the mind and body and accessing an important source of strength: each other.
The Northwest MHTTC is supporting provider well-being by providing training, technical assistance, and products that:
This infographic summarizes the activities of the 2021 Provider Well-Being initiatives (click to expand):
We Make The Path By Walking is an eight-part webinar and podcast series designed to help us reckon with our turbulent world, offering support and direction for a clearer path forward. Interactive sessions bring focus and connection through meaningful group discussion, opening opportunities for personal exploration, insight and the discovery of new ways to navigate life with resilience and hope. Psychotherapeutic modalities drawn from East Asian medicine equips participants with self-nurturance skills such as meditation and breathing practices, voice-work and body awareness techniques for day-to-day well-being.
Rebekah Demirel L.Ac. MPCC is the founder and director of Trauma Integration Programs, with more than a decade as an ambulance paramedic, twenty-two years as a paramedic trainer and fifteen years of mental health counseling experience, specializing in post-traumatic stress and critical incident stress. (Licensed in BC) She is also a licensed East Asian medicine practitioner and acupuncturist, practicing in Victoria, BC. Rebekah’s unique skill set and experience are informed by her own traumatic childhood and teen years spent on the street and in the foster care system, giving her a special familiarity and empathy for trauma and loss.
Provider Well-being with Aleks Martin is an eight-part series of webinars and podcasts focused on building resilience for the workforce. Aleks brings a special focus on the needs of the LGBTQI2+ and BBIPOC (Black, Brown, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities.
Aleks Martin, MSW, LSWAIC, SUDP, MAP has a Master in Social Work from UW, has worked at numerous social service agencies in the area of substance use, public health, HIV/AIDS prevention, national trans* health, COVID-19 response, and currently has a private practice focused on LGBTQI2+ People Of Color with a particular interest in Asian/Pacific Islander Americans.
Live learning communities and webinars with C4 Innovations. The Northwest MHTTC has sponsored seats in two 5-week learning communities conducted by our partner, C4 Innovations: Providing Trauma-informed Supervision and Best Practices in Whole Person Care. C4 Innovations is also presenting six webinars on a variety of topics with Northwest MHTTC.
C4 Innovations offers training and technical assistance and consulting services that spark learning and transformation through community change efforts, research and evaluation, and innovative product development and dissemination. Their work spans the continuum from prevention and early intervention strategies to housing solutions and recovery supports—all with a focus on transforming lives, systems, and communities.
Disaster Response and Behavioral Health series includes webinars and workshop-style skill-building modules. This series includes topics such as burnout, compassion fatigue, moral injury, resilience, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and grief.
Dr. Kira Mauseth is a practicing clinical psychologist who sees patients at Snohomish Psychology Associates, teaches as a Senior Instructor at Seattle University and serves as a co-lead for the Behavioral Health Strike Team for the WA State Department of Health. Her work and research interests focus on resilience, trauma and disaster behavioral health. She has worked extensively in Haiti with earthquake survivors, in Jordan with Syrian refugees, and with first responders and health care workers throughout Puget Sound and the United States. She also conducts trainings with organizations and educational groups about disaster preparedness and resilience building within local communities.
The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium's "Healthy Healers" Train the Trainer program in Alaska for Indigenous rural providers is designed to increase job retention and reduce burnout of rural providers. The training contains eight modules which cover topics such as loving your job, job stress, self-care, balancing body and mind, emotional balance and spiritual connections, balancing past and present, building a support system, building a sustainable community support system and how to bring all these components together.
First Episode / Early Psychosis Peer Specialist consultation and self-care support. The Northwest MHTTC is hosting a four-part series aimed at supporting peer specialists working with first episode psychosis coordinated specialty care programs.
Lorrin Gehring, CPC, is a passionate leader and a trainer and consultant specializing in workforce and program development, peer support and implementation, coaching and mentoring, and adaptive leadership. Michelle Owens is a peer support specialist and the Young Adult Engagement Specialist at the Early Assessment and Support Alliance Center for Excellence at the OHSU-PSU School of Public Health, where she does program development and research on peer support and youth voice.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for ACT Teams. The work that PACT Teams do can be stressful and overwhelming at times, which can lead to burnout and job dissatisfaction. Having tools at your disposal to help both yourself, your team members, and the people you serve can make a difference in your well-being. This is an intermediate level workshop designed for PACT team members of all levels.
Michelle McDonald-Lopez is a licensed mental health counselor and has been working in the field for the past 12 years. She has provided licensure supervision and has worked in outpatient, inpatient, and in jail settings over the course of her career, mainly with those experiencing psychotic disorders, serious mental illnesses, and anxiety disorders. Most of her clinical work has involved use of cognitive behavioral therapies, and mindfulness. Between 2012-March 2020 she was a Team Leader of a PACT team and has served as a fidelity co-reviewer for several PACT teams across Washington state. Currently she works for the University of Washington and trains team leads and new team members in ACT basics, comprehensive assessment, and CBT-informed care, including mindfulness-based stress reduction.
Family Bridger Peer Navigator Project. Family Bridger is a novel peer-to-peer model of support to address unmet needs of caregivers of loved ones experiencing early psychosis. While family and caregiver engagement is critical to improving long-term outcomes of individuals experiencing early psychosis, negative caregiver experiences can impede recovery. Peer navigator models have been demonstrated to be a successful method of addressing unmet caregiver needs, though such support for caregivers of loved ones experiencing psychosis is limited. The Family Bridger Program was developed to train caregivers with long-term lived experience caring for an individual experiencing psychosis (Family Bridgers) to serve as peer navigators to address these needs for newer caregivers via interpersonal support, education, advocacy, resource provision, and skill building. FB’s work collaboratively with caregivers to identify needs, co-develop a plan of action, and work with families to meet identified needs.
This project is conducted in partnership with the SPIRIT Lab at the University of Washington, the University of Washington Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and the Washington State Center of Excellence in Early Psychosis.
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.
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 Well-Being in Health Care: A National Symposium
This national symposium from the MHTTC Network featured national leaders on organizational well-being and the conditions influencing their employees’ well-being. The webinar recordings and resources from this convention are now available. At your convenience, you can learn how health care organizations can benefit from investing in these values and walk away with practical measures your organization can implement at various levels, especially with administrative buy-in.
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.
Want more information? Visit the Northwest MHTTC's Resource Library and Websites by Topic and sign up for our monthly newsletter for regular updates about events, trainings, and resources available to the Northwest region.
