About
The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in its scope and impact on the mental health of all providers, including those already working in high stress positions and others who have not previously experienced this level of distress, compassion fatigue, grief, and secondary trauma. It is more important than ever to offer providers and the organizations where they work access to resources and self-care practices that support wellness, increase resilience, and reduce burnout. Practicing personal and organizational self-care increases the wellness of providers and their ability to continue to provide effective care. The South Southwest MHTTC is offering wellness and self-care resources in support of providers who do so much for others.
Upcoming Events
Products & Resources
Selected Resources
“Promoviendo El Bien Estar”: Self-Care Cultural Considerations for Latino/Hispanic Frontline Workers
A detailed view of self-care techniques specific to Latino/Hispanic frontline workers, as well as cultural implications of what self-care means to Latinos/Hispanics. Learning Objectives: - Identify and differentiate between stress, burnout and compassion fatigue - Increase awareness of stressors and triggers - Identify healthy and unhealthy coping skills (self-nourishment, self-medication & reconnecting) - Learn about the importance of self-care and identify self-care options. - Cultural Implications and Considerations of “self-care” within the Latino/Hispanic culture. - A collaboration webinar between South Southwest MHTTC and UT Rio Grande Valley-
Working with Others Who are Overwhelmed
Protecting your well-being while working with and caring for overwhelmed colleagues and clients. Understand how to create, maintain, and strengthen your self-care plan. Examine the uniquely taxing effects of the pandemic and what self-care skills help most. Manage expectations of yourself and others in the face of widespread overwhelm. Facilitated by Sarri Gilman, MA, MFT
Naming and Taming the Overwhelm During the Pandemic
Understand the impact of widespread overwhelm in this field. Acknowledge the effects of historical, intergeneration, racial, institutional, climate, political, and pandemic trauma. Recognize the signs of personal overwhelm. Learn key strategies toward overwhelm reduction and recovery that are most helpful during the pandemic. Examine your expectations, needs, vulnerabilities and strengths. Using your core values, develop your support. Facilitated by Sarri Gilman, MA, MFT
Developing and Supporting the Boundaries You Need
Your boundaries have one purpose: to take care of you. Understand the four steps of boundary development, how culture shapes boundaries, and how to become a boundaries expert in your life. Learn the seven patterns and how to bring balance to your own patterns. Learn skills for extreme boundary challenges – especially important during the pandemic. Facilitated by Sarri Gilman, MA, MFT
Trauma and Secondary Trauma: Caring for Yourself and Others
Your boundaries have one purpose: to take care of you. Understand the four steps of boundary development, how culture shapes boundaries, and how to become a boundaries expert in your life. Learn the seven patterns and how to bring balance to your own patterns. Learn skills for extreme boundary challenges – especially important during the pandemic. Facilitated by Sarri Gilman, MA, MFT
Leading Your Team through Overwhelm: Prevention and Recovery
Leaders may notice that their staff are either overwhelmed or on the edge of overwhelm. Organizational approaches to supporting team members go beyond advocating for self-care. In this session, we dive deeply into understanding overwhelm and explore proactive strategies leaders can use to help themselves and their teams recover. Facilitated by Sarri Gilman, MA, MFT
Training Resources
Wellness Matters: Self-Care for Mental Health Providers
This online course, developed by the Northeast and Caribbean MHTTC, includes three one-hour modules focused on self-care strategies, wellness frameworks, and personal and professional resilience.
Tip Sheets or Publication
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.
Pause, Reset, Nourish to Promote Well-being
This tip sheet from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network provides information about the specific self-care strategy of Pause-Reset-Nourish, or PRN. This fact sheet acknowledges the levels of stress that professionals may be currently experiencing and offers a way to address unwanted symptoms and promote and replenish wellbeing and enhance resilience.
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.
Toolkits
American Psychiatric Association Toolkit for Well-being Ambassadors
The APA Workgroup on Psychiatrist Well-Being and Burnout has created a PowerPoint slide deck and companion manual to help physicians advocate for systemic reform in your home institution or organization. The slide deck can be modified to match the needs of your organization as you spread awareness of physician burnout and assist your organization in addressing the wellness and burnout needs within your work community
- Download the Toolkit for Well-being Ambassadors
- Download the Manual for Well-being Ambassadors
- Download the Well-being/Burnout Flyer
Advancing Compassion Resilience: A Toolkit for Health and Human Services
This online toolkit offers information, activities, and resources for health care leadership and staff to understand, recognize, and minimize the experience of compassion fatigue to increase compassion resilience perspectives and skills. The authors of the toolkit are a collaborative team made up of mostly educators, administrative leaders and community mental health workers.
National Council for Behavioral Health Build Compassion Resilience in the Workforce
This toolkit chapter, one component of a larger trauma and resiliency change package, provides action steps and tools to implement organizational approaches to building compassion resilience in the mental health workforce.
Assessments and Measures
Professional Quality of Life (PROQOL)
The PROQOL is the most commonly used measure of the negative and positive affects of helping others who experience suffering and trauma. The ProQOL has sub-scales for compassion satisfaction, burnout and compassion fatigue.
Webpages
MHTTC Network COVID-19 Responding to 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.
