MSH STAFF WELLNESS
MSH STAFF GETS MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT A generous donation for a dedicated specialist to care for staff’s mental well-being will also help MSH provide better care for its patients | BY VAWN HIMMELSBACH
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he COVID-19 pandemic has added enormous pressure to the health care system as care providers try to navigate this new normal. And anxiety is high. Some frontline health care workers self-isolated away from their family, even sending their kids to stay with extended family during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. For more than eight months they have been continually vigilant when dealing with patients who have COVID-19 — or anyone else who may be an asymptomatic carrier. Every workday at the hospital they self-screen; they wear face masks, face shields, gloves and gowns. The daily ritual of PPE can be exhausting. “It’s one of those conditions we’ve never experienced before except in our readings of the Spanish flu,” says Dr. Rustom Sethna, Chief of Psychiatry at MSH. “We’re in a con-
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Markham Stouffville Hospital Foundation
stant state of vigilance in care environments and there’s a lot of challenges associated with that, from the early challenges of PPE to exhausting work hours.” This is particularly true for those who work in the Emergency Department or the ICU, yet the impacts extend beyond just these health care workers. There’s also distress among facilities and housekeeping staff, as well as administrative staff. “It’s been a challenging process — the constant fear that today might be the day you get it,” says Dr. Sethna. “That fear generates a lot of stress and anxiety and despair in care providers. Every time you see someone who has the disease or potentially could have it, you get retraumatized.” “This vigilance comes at a cost,” says Teresa Wong, MSH’s manager of outpatient mental health. “Staff are experiencing a combination of anxiety, fear, sadness, frustration, helplessness, doubt and exhaustion. Staff are burnt out from wave one as we face wave two.” “Their sleep is affected, or they go home and just crawl into bed and withdraw from people,” says Teresa. Some staff have already been through SARS, which was “extraordinarily scary to live with,” so that leads to a resurgence of intense fear and worry during COVID-19. This highly emotional state is persistent and is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. That’s why
MSH looked for ways to provide support and coping mechanisms to help staff manage what is often referred to as ‘compassion fatigue.’ A $100,000 donation from The Gordon & Ruth Gooder Charitable Foundation has enabled MSH to hire a full-time social worker to support the mental health of staff during the pandemic, which will ultimately lead to better care for patients. The Gooder Foundation was established in 2010, built upon the Gooder’s philosophy of trust and respect for people regardless of
