WORCESTER, Mass. — Alicia Wierenga is a veteran health care worker who says mental health is a big concern for her coworkers and herself, but she’s often too busy to consider it.
“It feels like I’m walking through a warzone right now,” explained the mother of two. “It just doesn’t feel real,” said Wierenga, Senior Director of Patient and Family Center Care at UMass Memorial Medical Center.
It has been six weeks of 12-hour days, she feels for her colleagues in emergency medicine who are watching an overwhelming amount of critically ill patients come and go.
“We have nurses physical many other providers taking care of about 150 critical care patients which is about 50% more than we usually ever see,” said Dr. Michael Gustafson, MD President of UMass Memorial.
Dr. Michael Gustafson, president of @umassmemorial tells me the high mortality rate of covid makes the emotional burden higher than most health care professionals have faced...
— Evan White (@EvanWhiteIII) May 5, 2020
Gustafson said the hospital has created a series of programs for its staff to manage stress and find ways to cope with pandemic workflow including:
- A peer support network
- Having psychiatry staff visit COVID units
- An 800 number staffed by case managers
These may be useful options but must be used.
Wierenga has not used any psychiatric help to manage stress.
“It’s hard to ask for help sometimes and even in our profession, it’s not something that we’re good at,” Wierenga said.
She says the programs offer comfort and will be good for her and others, in time.
“Hopefully what comes out of this is that we become more open to reaching out to others to help us and we learn to take care of ourselves better,” said Wierenga.
“I would have thought I would have gotten used to it but I haven’t.” @umassmemorial nurse and director or patient care sharing perspective on mental health amid #Covid19
— Evan White (@EvanWhiteIII) May 5, 2020
“I think we have to keep at this not just for the last two months but for the next month and for many months coming because this isn’t going to away quickly,” Gustafson said.
UMass has also changed its policy for COVID-19 patients near the end of their lives.
“Many caregivers describe that as the most difficult thing that they've ever experienced, having somebody pass away without a family member present,” Gustafson explained.
Last week, UMass Memorial launched End of Life Navigator, allowing a family member to be present for the final hour or two of the life of their loved one dying from the virus to say goodbye.
Massachusetts General Hospital also created tools for its staff, said John Denninger, MD, PhD, a psychiatrist and the Director of Research and Clinical Training at the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine.
“We and our colleagues all over the system, all over Boston, (and) all over the country are thinking about this very hard and doing everything we can do to provide people with the tools that we know that have been shown to help people defend over the onslaught of this stress,” Denninger said.
Long-term stress can lead to depression, and heart disease among other ailments said Denninger.
The tools include online skill builder courses for resiliency training and one-hour sessions for stress management.
Boston 25 News also spoke with Beth Israel Lahey Health which put forth similar measures for employees, said Jennifer Kritz, Vice President of Communications at BILH.
Responding to and managing through the COVID-19 pandemic can certainly take an emotional toll, and we are deeply committed to supporting the wellbeing of our clinicians and staff. In an effort to provide 24/7 access to mental health and behavioral health support, we offer free access to an online digital mental health platform across the Beth Israel Lahey Health system. In addition, individual hospitals and business units (such as BILH Continuing Care and BILH Behavioral Services) have created a number of unique offerings for their clinicians and staff to provide support and promote resilience, including comfort rooms – private spaces equipped with a phone where employees can confidentially call and speak with local mental health professionals; a “warmline” where staff can speak with a caring social worker or chaplain; peer support programs; access to free online yoga classes; weekly Zen emails; a variety of mindfulness/meditation offerings; serenity spaces and other offerings.
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