Integrated Emotional Support Program

Providing Emotional Support for Caregiver Event-Related Trauma

IESP provider In the wake of adverse patient events, many healthcare professionals experience caregiver event-related trauma.  

The Integrated Emotional Support Program is designed to connect healthcare professionals with emotional support resources after adverse patient outcomes. The emotional distress that may be experienced after these events can impact performance, patient safety and quality of care delivery, ability to work in a team, patient satisfaction, retention and absenteeism.

The UNC School of Medicine and UNC Health Care are committed to providing resources to faculty and staff to promote emotional support and wellness. These resources include:

  • The Taking Care of Our Own program
  • Licensing of the Mayo Clinic designed Well Being Index tool
  • Funding for programming including lectures and trainings around wellness promoting activities
  • The Integrated Emotional Support Program

The Integrated Emotional Support Program is available to healthcare professionals at UNC Hospitals who provide direct patient care OR those who make decisions that directly impact patient outcomes.

 

The EAP program provides free face-to-face visits with counselors in the community. Services are completely free of charge. Counseling sessions are protected under HIPAA; employers and managers will not be notified.

Phone: 855.394.5547
Online: guidanceresources.com 

If you are a UNC Health Care employee, please use Web ID: UNCHC
If you are a medical student, resident, faculty or SOM employee, please use Web ID: TARHEELS

For more information on additional services provided by the Employee Assistance Program that are not included here, please visit the Employee Assistance Program website.

The CISM team provides trained group-focused and individual support to health care professionals experiencing critical incident related stress after a traumatic event. Trained volunteers will meet with those directly involved in the event to talk about what occurred, their feelings about the event, and coping skills needed to recover from the related stress. Educational handouts on self-care will be provided.

CISM on-call coordinator Pager: 216.3636
If no response, page the on-call Chaplain: 123.3288
Online: CISM website on the Intranet

The CISM team can also provide emotional support for caregiver trauma that occurs outside of adverse patient events.

The Peer Support Program is a new program at UNC that connects health care professionals with trained peer support volunteers. Interested individuals can receive 1:1 peer support after adverse patient events or events with serious unanticipated patient outcomes. This service is open to healthcare professionals involved in patient care including, but not limited to, physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, techs, and therapists.

Phone: 919.966.5479
Pager: 216.0660

Taking Care of Our Own is designed to address burnout syndrome in physicians and residents. Burnout syndrome is characterized by a constellation of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and loss of perspective that work is meaningful. The program is aimed at increasing awareness, providing psychoeducation and offering assessment and treatment in a confidential and supportive setting that is optimized to destigmatize seeking help for emotional distress.

Phone 919.445.0218

 Pastoral Care at UNC Medical Center is committed to caring for the spiritual needs of faculty and staff as they face the emotional and spiritual impact of illness and crisis. Spiritual support is available to people of all faith traditions and Chaplains are readily available to explore spiritual questions and concerns that may arise for healthcare professionals. Pastoral Care helps people deal with issues of fear, loneliness, ethical values, questions of meaning, hope, hopelessness and end-of-life matters.

Pager: 123.3288

The UNC Hospitals Beacon Program provides comprehensive, coordinated care to UNC Health Care System’s patients, families, and employees experiencing a variety of family violence. It includes services for children, victims of domestic abuse or intimate partner violence (IPV), human trafficking, workplace violence, sexual assault, and the elderly. Beacon offers services for both medical school and hospital employees, including brief supportive counseling, safety planning, lethality assessments, limited financial assistance and education. Any faculty or staff member who has experienced physical abuse, threats, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, or other violence is eligible.

Phone: 984.974.0470
Pager: 1.888.378.0551

Webinar Training Sessions will be held at 12pm ET on the following topics/dates:

Title Date
Deescalating difficult situations Thursday, April 11, 2019
Bringing out the best in others Thursday, April 25, 2019
Reinventing yourself Thursday, May 9, 2019
Becoming a better listener Thursday, May 23, 2019
Strengthening empathetic abilities Thursday, June 13, 2019
Learning to relax Thursday, June 27, 2019
Practicing assertiveness Thursday, July 11, 2019
Giving effective feedback Thursday, July 25, 2019
Self-Motivation secrets Thursday, August 8, 2019
Friendly persuasion: getting what you want Thursday, August 22, 2019

 

If you would like to join, please click on the date of the webinar to register.

 

Suicide Prevention Lifeline

(800) 273-8255
https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org