WELLNESS
TECHSUPPORT New mental health app helps health care workers cope with stresses of the COVID-19 pandemic NC School of Medicine and UNC Health developed the
By El l en Hardi son
provided with a summary of their results and trends. From there, the Heroes Health app in early app provides a personalized resource March as a way to provide page with links to hotline services mental health resources and well-being apps that are curated and support to health by their institutions. care workers. The team at If users show a possibility for selfUNC Institute for Trauma harm in their assessment, they’ll Recovery came up with be given a confidential report that the idea behind the app. an outreach team within their They then received financial institution can see. The outreach contributions from donors team will give the user a call and like Google Cloud, Bank can share the resources available of America, The Rockefeller to them. “That’s super helpful, Foundation and others to bring it because it’s almost like a hotline in to life. John Bates, Heroes Health reverse for someone who is really lead coordinator at UNC Institute struggling,” John says. for Trauma Recovery, says there’s Based on data from the almost a tremendous need for something 900 users in 48 of the 50 states, like this app. “The pandemic has John says they are seeing general put health care workers under an trends of significant stress. “A incredible amount of stress,” he relatively high percentage of people says. “It has created the kind of who use the app show some sort of conditions for them in which they high symptom burden for anxiety are not only dealing with very high and depression,” he says. “The app volumes of patients, but they are is really a self-assessment tool and Susan Pedersen and Amy James Loftis, both health care also dealing with inaccessibility an ability to deploy your resources, workers at UNC Health. of PPE and the possibility of and to engage the institution in a contracting the virus themselves, confidential but meaningful way in passing it on to family and being there for patients who supporting their workforce.” In addition to these individual couldn’t have family visit the hospital.” users, Heroes Health has partnerships with UNC Health, Once users download the free app, they are provided Cooper University Health Care and Thomas Jefferson with a set of surveys each week that take about five University Hospitals and are in the process of partnering minutes to complete. These surveys help users to with 11 more. assess their mental health symptoms, such as anxiety, COVID-19 was the catalyst for developing Heroes depression and sleep health, to understand how the Health, but John and his colleagues say they hope health pandemic is affecting their life, both within and beyond care workers feel comfortable using support systems on the work. Immediately after taking the surveys, individuals are app and prioritizing their mental health at all times. CHM 56
chapelhillmagazine.com
December 2020