Pushing through is an important and necessary survival tool. All of us had some form of “pushing through” at the height of the pandemic. But that can also inadvertently lead to skipping over crucial, emotional experiences. When we have the opportunity to pause, it is important not to gloss over feelings that have built up over time. And as risky as it may sound, being intentional about reckoning with pandemic grief and trauma is particularly critical for organizations. Those that have been touched by the pandemic who ignore powerful feelings will find themselves suffering from a complicated we ..read more

At our state capitols and in the Washington, D.C. area, countless individuals are coping with what could happen (and what could have happened) between January 6, 2021 and Inauguration Day on January 20. Among our nation’s helpers and protectors, public servants are working particularly hard to manage a crisis and anticipate what comes next, but they may not have a shared vocabulary for the emotional labor entailed by these duties. This is why we are presenting here our spectrum of pre-traumatic stress (ranging from concern to paralysis) to provide both a shared vocabulary and a call for lead ..read more

COVID-19 responders are in a high-threat environment: two strategies to help mitigate their increased, unnecessary risk Photo credit: Steve Sanchez Photography Already struggling in a system-wide burnout crisis, COVID-19 responders in healthcare now have reason to worry: Will I be hurt by going to work today? It’s no secret that many healthcare workers are lacking adequate PPE, a critical situation this recent Time magazine article highlights. Those shortages of PPE and ventilators, along with the delays in testing, sporadic mob-like aggressions, and watching so many ..read more

Though burnout and trauma exposure have different causes and symptoms – and require different interventions and remedies – it’s well established that both are highly toxic to the wellbeing, resilience, and health of employees. Particularly concerning is that those “helpers” working in demanding environments – humanitarian aid workers, armed forces, and all types of emergency responders. Certainly, they suffer from chronic stress, burnout, and trauma exposure more than those in other occupations. But they aren’t the only ones. Even just rampant uncertainty and chaotic change in other types of ..read more

Siddharth Ashvin Shah, M.D., M.P.H. Founder and CEO Our ordinary language definition of traumatic stress: Distress that still aches Imagine you and a friend are going down a sidewalk and a dog lunges at both of you. For you, the incident may be forgotten in a matter of minutes. Your friend, however, has heart palpitations and then he stays in a funk for an hour. Why is this? Perhaps your friend was bitten by someone else’s pet a week ago. The rabies injections were not pleasant. Whatever the reason, his nervous system is distressed, and it still aches. We would say that he has experienced trau ..read more

Trauma. We encounter it just about everywhere we look these days. We absorb it through news stories of victims and from witnesses of violent plots, shootings, and cruelty. We feel it through natural disasters, poverty, and homelessness. You don’t have to be someone’s mother to ache with empathy and compassion for those suffering from such horrific experiences. For many, news stories trigger memories of their own direct traumas. Unfortunately, most people have experienced some form of trauma at some point in their lives. However, what we may overlook is that a vast number of people must withst ..read more

Although it’s been two weeks since the anniversary and remembrances of 9/11, I find myself still reflecting on how it changed the lives of so many, including my own. The horrors of that day occurred only two months after I started my residency at Mount Sinai Hospital in NYC. For me, once I was able to see through my own fog of insecurity and grief, the major thing that helped relieve the pent-up pain was effective action with other helpers like myself. As a community outreach kind of guy since my childhood, I found ways to connect with several different helper “tribes”: other physicians, comm ..read more

In our first blog in the Connectedness Series, we discussed the benefits and drawbacks that the advancement of technology has on connectedness in the workplace especially as it impacts the healthcare arena. However, technology is impacting connectedness in many workplaces, which makes us ask, “What is unique about physicians?” The presenters I heard suggested that the medical training process itself sets super-human expectations, exposes clinicians to secondary trauma, and models a lack of self-care. Others said that clinicians are unlikely to seek needed mental health care for themselves for ..read more

  A recent article in the Washington Post, What’s one of America’s most dangerous jobs? It’s not what you think (Sept 11, 2017) brought attention to the specter of workplace violence that nurses and other healthcare staff face on a daily basis. Conventional wisdom has long been that nurses and doctors face violence only if they work in the Emergency Department at an urban hospital, thanks to television shows such as E.R., Law and Order, Chicago Med, and more. The violence is nearly always depicted as being perpetrated by drunk or drug-addled patients. Yet the reality is that violence also ..read more

Pushing through is an important and necessary survival tool. All of us had some form of “pushing through” at the height of the pandemic. But that can also inadvertently lead to skipping over crucial, emotional experiences. When we have the opportunity to pause, it is important not to gloss over feelings that have built up over time. And as risky as it may sound, being intentional about reckoning with pandemic grief and trauma is particularly critical for organizations. Those that have been touched by the pandemic who ignore powerful feelings will find themselves suffering from a complicated we ..read more