Effectiveness of CBT-Informed Behavioral Health Interventions for Health Care Workers in a Specialized Clinical Service During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Objectives. To evaluate symptomatology and clinical outcomes among treatment-seeking health care workers (HCWs). We examined engagement, presenting symptomatology, and treatment outcomes among a diverse group of HCWs in a large urban health system. Methods. Demographic and pretreatment-posttreatment outcome data were available for 69 HCWs who sought cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), with or without medication management, at a specialized clinical center from July 1, 2020, to April 25, 2022. Results. Treatment-seeking HWCs predominantly identified as female (78.3%) and non-White (53.6%) and had a mean age of 36.33 ± 10.72 years. Wilcoxon signed-rank tests showed significant reductions in all symptoms and increased well-being (P < .001), with effect sizes ranging from 0.59 to 0.71. Conclusions. Our findings replicate those of existing research on the prevalence of psychiatric distress among HCWs, uniquely focusing on those seeking care. Our outcome data suggest that short-term CBT is effective in reducing clinical symptoms and increasing HCW well-being. Public Health Implications. Given the elevated rates of distress found in HCW surveys, evidence-based interventions such as ours are essential to ensure workforce well-being. Providing mental health care to HCWs has both individual benefits and potential implications for improved patient care and workforce retention. (Am J Public Health. 2024;114(S2):S167-S170. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2023.307435).

Development and initial validation of the Mount Sinai Resilience Scale.

OBJECTIVE: The construct of psychological resilience has received increasing attention in the mental health field. This article describes the development and initial validation of a novel self-report resilience scale, which addresses gaps in the resilience measurement literature by assessing thoughts and behaviors that help promote resilience rather than traits, and simultaneously evaluating multiple factors previously associated with resilience. METHOD: Following consensus meetings focused on scale development, we conducted an online study (n = 1,864) of U.S. adults to develop and validate an initial version of the Mount Sinai Resilience Scale (MSRS). RESULTS: An exploratory factor analysis in a random 50% of the sample suggested a seven-factor solution; this solution was then generally supported by a follow-up confirmatory factor analysis in the remaining 50% of the sample. After removing poor-fitting items, a revised 24-item scale correlated in the expected directions with established measures of perceived resilience and resilience-related constructs (e.g., social support and optimism). CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, the results of this study provide initial support for the convergent and discriminant validity of the MSRS and describe its factor structure. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

A Resilience Program for Hospital Security Officers During the COVID-19 Pandemic Using a Community Engagement Model.

Security officers in health systems are subject to high levels of stress and current support interventions do not necessarily target their needs. To address this gap, a resilience center at a major urban tertiary care hospital utilized community engagement principles to adapt and implement resilience and mental health awareness workshops, which were informed by initial piloting. The program consisted of twelve short briefings in which officers were provided psychoeducation on psychological first aid and adaptive coping. The program reached 107 security officers (89.5% men, 95.2% people of color); both qualitative and quantitative feedback indicated a generally positive reception. Further efforts to support security officers are warranted given their high exposure to patient crises and under-acknowledgement as frontline workers in healthcare.

Symptom characteristics of health care workers seeking outpatient psychiatric care during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Though there is a growing body of research establishing a broad negative psychological impact of COVID-19 among healthcare workers (HCWs), there are comparably fewer studies evaluating symptom presentation and clinical diagnoses among treatment-seeking HCWs. The present report seeks to fill this gap in the literature by establishing the prevalence of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, alcohol misuse, and well-being among treatment-seeking HCWs. METHOD: Data were collected from 421 treatment-seeking HCWs in an outpatient hospital-based mental health setting. Both self-report measures and semi-structured interviews were utilized to assess symptom severity and render psychiatric diagnosis at intake. RESULTS: Adjustment disorders were the most prevalent diagnosis at 44.2%. Of the 347 who completed self-report measures, over 47% endorsed moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms, with 13% endorsing suicidal ideation (SI). Fifty-eight percent scored in the moderate-to-severe range for anxiety, and 19% screened positive for COVID-related post-traumatic stress disorder. Further analyses revealed that those in medical support roles endorsed significantly greater depression symptoms relative to other groups and also reported SI at greater frequency. Medical trainees also endorsed SI at higher frequencies. CONCLUSIONS: These findings are consistent with previous research on the adverse impact of COVID-19 stressors on HCWs' mental health. We further identified vulnerable groups that are underrepresented in the literature. These findings highlight the need for targeted outreach and intervention among overlooked HCWs populations.

Supporting Faith-Based Communities Through and Beyond the Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought widespread and notable effects to the physical and mental health of communities across New York City with disproportionate suffering Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino communities alongside additional stressors such as racism and economic hardship. This report describes the adaptation of a previously successful evidence-based community engagement health education program for the deployment of resilience promoting workshop program in faith-based organizations in BIPOC communities in New York City. From June 2021 to June 2022, nine faith-based organizations implemented 58 workshops to 1,101 non-unique workshop participants. Most of the workshops were delivered online with more women (N = 803) than men (N = 298) participating. All organizations completed the full curriculum; the workshop focused on self-care and physical fitness was repeated most frequently (N = 13). Participants in the workshops ranged from 4 to 73 per meeting and were largely female. The Building Community Resilience Project is an easy and effective way to modify an existing, evidence-based community health education program to address new and relevant health needs such as resilience and stress amidst the COVID-19 pandemic among faith communities serving BIPOC populations. More research is needed regarding the impact of the workshops as well as adaptability for other faith traditions.

What organizational and business models underlie the provision of spiritual care in healthcare organizations? An initial description and analysis.

Two-thirds of American hospitals have chaplains. This article explores the organizational and business models that underlie how chaplains are integrated into hospitals. Based on interviews with 14 chaplain managers and the 11 healthcare executives to whom they report at 18 hospitals in 9 systems, we identify three central findings. First, there is significant variation in how spiritual care programs are staffed and integrated into their hospitals. Second, executives and chaplain managers see the value of chaplains in terms of their quality of care, reliability and responsivity to emergent patient and staff needs, and clinical training and experience working within a complex environment. Third, few departments rely on empirical data when making decisions about staffing, tending instead to default to the budgetary status quo. These findings provide the basis for a larger more systematic study.

M.I.C.A.H. Project HEAL: Sustainability of a Faith-Based Community Health Advisor Training Program in Urban Underserved Communities in the USA.

Faith-based organizations (FBOs) can play an important role in improving health outcomes. Lay community health advisors (CHAs) are integral to these efforts. This paper assesses the sustainability of a CHA training program for congregants in African-American and Latino FBOs and subsequent implementation of educational workshops. The program is unique in that a health care chaplain in an academic medical center was central to the program's development and implementation. Forty-eight CHAs in 11 FBOs were trained to teach workshops on cardiovascular health, mental health, diabetes, and smoking cessation. Two thousand four hundred and forty-four participants attended 70 workshops. This program has the potential to be a model to educate individuals and to address health inequities in underserved communities. Health care chaplains in other medical centers may use this as a model for enhancing community engagement and education.

COVID-19 Pandemic Support Programs for Healthcare Workers and Implications for Occupational Mental Health: A Narrative Review.

This narrative review aims to summarize initiatives developed during the COVID-19 pandemic to support healthcare workers' emotional well-being within the context of a pre-existing framework of occupational mental health guidelines. This occupational mental health framework integrates principles from multiple disciplines to optimize prevention and management of mental health issues among employees. We conducted an online search on Medline/PubMed, Cochrane Library, and Embase for studies that reported on design or execution of medical institution-based interventions, aiming to support healthcare worker mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Inclusion criteria was intentionally broad in order to incorporate as many types of interventions at varying stages of development or evaluation. We included 31 studies in our review that reported on newly designed psychological support interventions for healthcare workers (HCW) during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that most programs commonly supported HCW mental health through offering one or more of the following initiatives: expanded basic need resources/services, additional workplace training programs that bolstered professional preparedness while also indirectly boosting HCW emotional health, and/or expanded psychological support programs, such as peer support programs, psychoeducational or counseling services. Most programs, however, did not consider methods to ensure program longevity or sustainability. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the acuity of HCW mental health issues and is likely to leave long lasting mental health strains among HCW. This pandemic is a critical point in time to catalyze much needed progress in reducing stigma and expanding HCW mental health care access.

An Innovative Approach for Integrating Mandatory, Longitudinal Spirituality Training Into the Medical School Curriculum.

PROBLEM: Most Americans indicate they are religious and/or spiritual and wish to have their beliefs taken into account when engaging with health care providers, yet gaps in medical education and health care practice remain. To underscore the importance of spirituality as a significant social determinant of health, a team at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York developed mandatory spirituality and health training for students integrated into all 4 years of the undergraduate medical education curriculum. APPROACH: From 2014 to 2020, a small group of faculty took an innovative approach, launching the initiative and expanding the team by engaging interprofessional faculty and staff from across the institution. The team used an iterative process to integrate 4 distinct modules into 4 existing courses, spanning the 4 years of medical school. OUTCOMES: The majority of students found that the spirituality and health curriculum was valuable to training and professional development. They appreciated the importance of patients' spiritual needs, valued learning about the role chaplains play in patient care and how to initiate a consult, and indicated they intended to integrate spiritual history taking in their patient care. With respect to process, 3 key factors-establishing an interprofessional team, working through an iterative process, and integrating the curriculum into existing courses-were critical to designing and implementing the modules. NEXT STEPS: The team aims to expand and improve the curriculum by linking learning to specific standardized competencies as well as developing more specific performance assessments to demonstrate achievement of competencies. Professional development efforts will be enhanced so faculty can better model and reinforce the integration of spirituality into health care practices and expand the curriculum on spirituality and health into graduate medical education.

Developments in the first year of a resilience-focused program for health care workers.

The present article comprises a one-year retrospective review of the efforts of the Mount Sinai Center for Stress, Resilience and Personal Growth, an initiative to support the resilience and well-being of health care workers that was founded amid the first peak of the pandemic in New York in 2020. Specific offerings to date have included evidence-backed resilience workshops, a digital health platform, and a specialty screening and treatment service. All services have been modified or expanded in response to changing needs and are subject to ongoing research. Robust evidence-based programming that addressing health care worker well-being, regardless of role, may prove beneficial to institutions well beyond the pandemic.

Religion, spirituality, and risk for incident posttraumatic stress disorder, suicidal ideation, and hazardous drinking in U.S. military veterans: A 7-year, nationally representative, prospective cohort study.

While religion and spirituality (R/S) have been linked to positive mental health outcomes, most studies have employed cross-sectional designs, which do not allow one to evaluate the utility of R/S in predicting these outcomes. To address this gap, this study analyzed data from a 7-year nationally representative, prospective cohort study of U.S. military veterans to examine the effects of R/S on the development of incident mental health outcomes in this population. Specifically, we examined the association between organizational religious activity (ORA), non-organizational religious activity (NORA), and intrinsic religiosity (IR), and the risk of incident PTSD, suicidal ideation (SI), and hazardous drinking (HD). Multivariable logistic regression analyses revealed that ORA predicted a lower incidence of PTSD and SI; NORA a greater risk of developing HD; and IR a lower risk of developing HD. These results suggest that religion and spirituality, assessed in a nationally representative sample of military veterans, predict risk of developing PTSD, SI, and HD, over and above sociodemographic factors and perceived social support. Clinical implications and strategies for incorporating R/S into mental health assessment and interventions in this population are discussed.

A Resilience-Building App to Support the Mental Health of Health Care Workers in the COVID-19 Era: Design Process, Distribution, and Evaluation.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increased strain on health care systems and negative psychological effects on health care workers (HCWs). This is anticipated to result in long-term negative mental health effects on the population, with HCWs representing a particularly vulnerable group. The scope of the COVID-19 pandemic necessitates the development of a scalable mental health platform to provide services to large numbers of at-risk or affected individuals. The Mount Sinai Health System in New York City was at the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States. OBJECTIVE: The Center for Stress, Resilience, and Personal Growth (CSRPG) was created to address the current and anticipated psychological impact of the pandemic on the HCWs in the health system. The mission of the Center is to support the resilience and mental health of employees through educational offerings, outreach, and clinical care. Our aim was to build a mobile app to support the newly founded Center in its mission. METHODS: We built the app as a standalone digital platform that hosts a suite of tools that users can interact with on a daily basis. With consideration for the Center's aims, we determined the overall vision, initiatives, and goals for the Wellness Hub app, followed by specific milestone tasks and deliverables for development. We defined the app's primary features based on the mental health assessment and needs of HCWs. Feature definition was informed by the results of a resilience survey widely distributed to Mount Sinai HCWs and by the resources offered at CSRPG, including workshop content. RESULTS: We launched our app over the course of two phases, the first phase being a "soft" launch and the second being a broader launch to all of Mount Sinai. Of the 231 HCWs who downloaded the app, 173 (74.9%) completed our baseline assessment of all mental health screeners in the app. Results from the baseline assessment show that more than half of the users demonstrate a need for support in at least one psychological area. As of 3 months after the Phase 2 launch, approximately 55% of users re-entered the app after their first opening to explore additional features, with an average of 4 app openings per person. CONCLUSIONS: To address the mental health needs of HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wellness Hub app was built and deployed throughout the Mount Sinai Health System. To our knowledge, this is the first resilience app of its kind. The Wellness Hub app is a promising proof of concept, with room to grow, for those who wish to build a secure mobile health app to support their employees, communities, or others in managing and improving mental and physical well-being. It is a novel tool offering mental health support broadly.

How Do Healthcare Executives Understand and Make Decisions about Spiritual Care Provision?

OBJECTIVES: This pilot study explores how healthcare leaders understand spiritual care and how that understanding informs staffing and resource decisions. METHODS: This study is based on interviews with 11 healthcare leaders, representing 18 hospitals in 9 systems, conducted between August 2019 and February 2020. RESULTS: Leaders see the value of chaplains in terms of their work supporting staff in tragic situations and during organizational change. They aim to continue to maintain chaplaincy efforts in the midst of challenging economic realities. CONCLUSIONS: Chaplains' interactions with staff alongside patient outcomes are a contributing factor in how resources decisions are made about spiritual care.

Predictive model for chaplain taxonomy patterns identified through latent class analysis among infants in a pediatric inpatient setting.

This study investigated patterns of spiritual care provided to inpatient infants and their parents, based on a taxonomy developed to describe spiritual care activities provided by chaplains. Data from 821 visits with 433 patients were included in the analyses. We applied a data-driven statistical approach, Latent Class Analysis (LCA), to identify patterns of taxonomy items that may be used for spiritual care. Three distinct patterns were identified and a predictive model was built to link a series of predictors to these patterns. Hospital length of stay and whether a visit is an initial or follow-up within an admission were significantly associated with the identified taxonomy patterns. These findings are helpful in understanding predictors and the nature of spiritual care delivery in an inpatient setting with infants. To our knowledge, this is the first application of LCA in research related to healthcare chaplaincy.

Using the Taxonomy: A Standard Vocabulary of Chaplain Activities.

At present, the field of chaplaincy does not have a standardized vocabulary for the activities that chaplains conduct in different institutions and settings. This is a hindrance when making comparisons among various chaplain activities across institutions and drawing conclusions from the data reported. Recently a standardized vocabulary, the Advocate Taxonomy, was developed by a group of chaplains and there was consensus agreement that the taxonomy represented the gamut of chaplain activities. However, to date, no data with adults has been presented to support the conclusions reached by the taxonomy development team. This article is the first effort to examine which taxonomy items are most commonly used in the acute care setting. It further explores the differences in the use of the taxonomy items in different settings (ICU vs. Non-ICU), the type of chaplain visit (Initial vs. Follow-up) and the patient's discharge status (Expired vs. discharged alive).

Mount Sinai's Center for Stress, Resilience and Personal Growth as a model for responding to the impact of COVID-19 on health care workers.

The COVID-19 pandemic is anticipated to have a prolonged adverse mental health impact on health care workers (HCWs). The supportive services implemented by the Mount Sinai Hospital System in New York for its workers culminated in the founding of the Mount Sinai Center for Stress, Resilience, and Personal Growth (CSRPG). CSRPG is an innovative mental health and resilience-building service that includes strong community engagement, self- and clinician-administered screening, peer co-led resilience training workshops, and care matching. The long-term sustainability of similar programs across the United States will require federal funding.

Prevalence of Journal Clubs: A Survey of Clinical Pastoral Education Residencies in the United States.

Journal clubs are an established and effective method of promoting research literacy and evidence-based practice in the medical field. However, their use in clinical pastoral education (CPE) residencies is relatively new and largely unstudied. In 2016 we surveyed 201 ACPE certified educators of CPE residency programs throughout the United States. Eighty-eight certified educators participated in this first-of-its-kind study. Our aim was to determine the prevalence and structure of existing CPE journal clubs and establish baseline data to determine the effectiveness of future programs for increasing research literacy. Seventy-three percent of respondents indicated they did not have a journal club. Journal clubs that do exist tend to meet at least monthly and last one to two hours. Chaplains, certified educators, or chaplain residents lead the majority of journal clubs. Seventy percent of respondents whose programs had journal clubs indicated they were interested to learn more about journal clubs. Journal clubs do not appear to be common in CPE residencies and chaplains may feel unprepared to lead them. CPE journal clubs would likely be strengthened by collaboration with other disciplines and from additional training for CPE certified educators. We offer suggestions to this end as well as areas for further research.

Adapting Health through Early Awareness and Learning Program into a New Faith-Based Organization Context.

BACKGROUND: Black churches serve as a trusted source of health information. Church congregants who are community health advisors (CHAs) can play a significant role in underserved communities. OBJECTIVES: To describe 1) a community engagement program between an academic medical center and faith-based organizations (FBOs) in which a health care chaplain plays a central role, and 2) an adaptation of the original Health through Early Awareness and Learning (HEAL) educational program that trains CHAs in FBOs in other underserved communities. METHODS: In collaboration with eight FBOs, the content of a 2-day educational training program to train CHAs was developed. The program covered a broad range of health topics in the context of men's health and women's health. Scripture was included in the training materials to help the CHAs make a connection between health positive scriptural encouragement and overall health. Practicums were used to evaluate CHA readiness to conduct workshops. Participants were provided with resources to access more information as well as questions that they can ask their health care providers. RESULTS: Twenty-six CHAs successfully completely the training program and demonstrated readiness to conduct workshops. CONCLUSIONS: Through close partnerships with churches in underserved communities, it was possible to successfully adapt a CHA health education training program.