Focus Area for the Mountain Plains MHTTC
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.
Primary Goals
- Explore the signs, symptoms, and neurological mechanisms of secondary traumatic stress and compassion fatigue unique to mental and medical health providers.
- Identify tools and resources for self-assessment of symptoms related to burnout and offer steps to empower individuals to use resilience-focused approaches to reverse burnout.
- Acknowledge the need for organization-wide responses to provider well-being. This requires that organizations empower providers to engage in their own well-being and self-care. Offering guidance and resources to leaders as they engage in organizational change can have lasting impacts in supporting provider well-being.
- Examine the capacity of building resilience to address job-related stress.
Compassion Fatigue SAMHSA Training
Description
The purpose of this training is to raise awareness about compassion fatigue - which is often described as the cost of caring for people who are in emotional and physical pain. The presenter will discuss how compassion fatigue is associated with Secondary Traumatic Stress and burnout. This presentation will help participants to identify the warning signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue while also offering suggestions in avoiding and/or overcoming compassion fatigue. IHS hopes this training will help prevent long-term stress and promote wellness for healthcare team members and all staff serving American Indian/Alaska Natives.
Objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
- Recognize the signs and symptoms of compassion fatigue.
- Identify how compassion fatigue impacts the workforce.
- Develop strategies for preventing and reversing compassion fatigue.
Toolkits
Healing Our Protectors: Building Resilience Among Tribal Law Enforcement Officers Through Cultural Interventions is a Mountain Plains MHTTC resource that serves behavioral health treatment providers in gaining a deeper understanding of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of their work as a law enforcement officer.
This toolkit has been developed to encourage self-care and to assist in building resilience among physical and behavioral healthcare providers amidst the global health pandemic. It walks the reader through a case scenario of one rural primary care provider who learns to identify signs of common mental, emotional, and psychological concerns that have arisen because of the global health pandemic.
To view resources about the global COVID-19 pandemic and how it has affected provider well-being, please click here.
Please reach out to us at [email protected] to inquire about additional resources regarding school-based mental health and other mental health topics.
