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Healing the healers | How Northside Hospital is supporting the mental health of medical professionals

The strain of the pandemic and the toll on health care workers is highlighted by the American Hospital Association in a 2022 report.

ATLANTA — The team at Northside Hospital is making sure those who care for patients each day receive the care they deserve.

“We are very connected to our patients,” Nikeisha Whatley-Leon explained. “We’re very connected to others.”

While that is a calling for many in the medical profession, the mental toll is also well-documented, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As such, Whatley-Leon, Northside’s director of behavioral services, spent midday Thursday leading a team of mental health specialists in their own day of self care. The "Healing the Healers" event is designed as a break for staff members, a chance to reconnect with nature via yoga and other activities at the Chattahoochee Nature Center.

Whatley-Leon shared a key reminder for the clinicians in attendance: that they, too, have permission to take a pause when needed.

“We go into the health care field because we want to help people, but that also means we can be triggered,” Whatley-Leon said, referencing the risk of staff experiencing secondary trauma. “And that's basically re-experiencing what the patient is going through on an emotional level that carries that emotional weight. So, that's why it's important to have the emotional support in place so that you know where to, where to go to get the resources that you need to stay well but also in the field of health care.”

The strain of the pandemic and the toll on healthcare workers is further highlighted by the American Hospital Association in a 2022 report. That study found "that 93% of health care workers reported stress, 86% reported anxiety, 77% reported frustration, 76% reported exhaustion and burnout, and 75% said they were overwhelmed,” the AHA stated. “Yet just 13% of front-line health care workers say they received behavioral health services.”

Yet, Whatley-Leon praised Northside’s staff support, parts of which were in place even pre-pandemic. Among the continued resources include a peer-responder model, which emphasizes routine employee check-ins, as well as programs like “Heal the Healers.”

“When everything kind of came to a head with us, we were already ahead of the curve,” Whatley-Leon shared.

Without a doubt, such access to supportive resources has been even more critical as the Northside community dealt with the emotions and heartache of the May 3 mass shooting that took place at Northside Medical Midtown last year.

“I just want to pay respect to those that were affected, those that lost loved ones, those that witnessed the event and also those still in the process of healing,” Whatley-Leon said ahead of Friday marking one year since the shooting. “And what I think this has done for us as an organization is show how strong we are in being resilient.”

“I think that it's really important for us to stay connected to those things that bring us light, bring us hope, bring us joy,” she added, “but also whatever it means for me or for that person to be able to feel like we're paying respect and honor to those that were affected, I think is really key.”

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