In this interview, Kirk J. Brower, MD, of Michigan Medical School, speaks with Gaurava Agarwal, MD. of Northwestern Medicine, to discuss his personal experience and the power that storytelling has to break down stigma and help others recognize the importance of mental healthcare.

Kirk J. Brower, MD, was the inaugural Chief Wellness Officer at the Michigan Medical School as well as a Professor within the Department of Psychiatry. Board-certified in both general and addiction psychiatry, Dr. Brower has been a practicing clinician for nearly 40 years.cal

Michael Myers, M.D. has spent much of his career treating clinicians and addressing physician suicide rates. He talks about his book Why Physicians Die By Suicide, and his unique approach to interviewing those with different types of lived experience. He goes into detail about efforts that can be made for prevention, intervention, and postvention. Suicide continues to be a heavily stigmatized topic, and Dr. Myers emphasizes the importance of awareness especially for our frontline healthcare workers.

This interview features a conversation with Corey Feist, JD, MBA, President and Co-Founder of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation, and Gaurava Agarwal, MD, Chief Wellness Executive at Northwestern Medicine and Expert Consultant on the Frontline Connect Initiative. During their conversation, Corey reflects on his family’s lived experience, and how they were introduced to the mental health discrimination and cultural barriers that persist within healthcare. Corey addresses the major issue of licensing and credentialing, and how that issue severely limits the well-being of licensed healthcare professionals across the country. He also highlights the ‘All In: Wellbeing First for Healthcare’ coalition which was co-founded by the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes Foundation and First Responders First, and the toolkit created to help hospitals and health systems, and even state medical associations, make critical change. Corey walks Dr. Agarwal through the Licensing and Credentialing Toolkit’s three steps to removing barriers, and emphasizes that change can come from anywhere, not just those in leadership roles.

Corey Feist, JD, MBA is a healthcare executive with over 20 years of experience. Corey is the Co-Founder of the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation and recently served as the Chief Executive Officer of the University of Virginia Physicians Group, the medical group practice of UVA Health.

In this conversation, Northwestern Medicine’s Chief Wellness Executive and Expert Consultant on Frontline Connect, Gaurava Agarwal, MD, speaks with Mary Moffit, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Resident and Faculty Wellness and Peer Support Programs at Oregon Health & Science University and George Keepers, MD, Elda V. Carruthers Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine of Oregon Health & Science University.  During the interview, Drs. Moffit and Keepers talk about their experiences building and sustaining their gold standard and published Internal EAP Program that offers free mental health services and supports to their clinicians and trainees.

In this interview with Sarah Prom, the Senior Director of Clinical Services at VITAL WorkLife explains how the company saw a need for healthcare-specific employee assistance program resources, and how they filled that gap. On top of the usual EAP services, VITAL WorkLife offers peer coaching for healthcare clinicians. She outlines what the peer-coaching program looks like, and the impressive outcomes they have seen over the years.

This interview features a conversation with Linda Bresnahan, MS, Executive Director of the Federation of State Physician Health Programs- (FSPHP) and Gaurava Agarwal, MD, Chief Wellness Executive at Northwestern Medicine and Expert Consultant on the Frontline Connect Initiative. During their conversation, Linda speaks about the history of FSPHP and the critical role that state PHPs play in increasing access to voluntary mental health care for frontline clinicians, including serving as safe, confidential resources for the profession.  The discussion also focuses on key benefits and outcomes of PHPs, how PHPs and hospitals, health systems, and clinicians can work together, as well as their extensive process of outreach, education, and referral to evaluation and treatment, and monitoring of those providers who may be in recovery for a mental health or substance use disorder.  Linda highlights recent changes and enhancements as PHPs increase the services they offer to clinicians.

In this conversation, Northwestern Medicine’s Chief Wellness Executive and Expert Consultant on Frontline Connect, Gaurava Agarwal, MD, speaks with Mary Moffit, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Resident and Faculty Wellness and Peer Support Programs at Oregon Health & Science University and George Keepers, MD, Elda V. Carruthers Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the School of Medicine of Oregon Health & Science University.  During the interview, Drs. Moffit and Keepers talk about their experiences building and sustaining their gold standard and published Internal EAP Program that offers free mental health services and supports to their clinicians and trainees.

In 2020 ChristianaCare’s Center for WorkLife Wellbeing, Nemours Children’s Health, and the University of Utah’s Resiliency Center won a $50,000 grant from the Delaware Health Sciences Alliance to conduct a study of frontline caregivers and the licensed mental health professionals who specialize in treating them. With the results of their study, the group was able to develop a course for mental health providers to learn the nuances of healthcare culture. Hear from some of the co-developers, Megan Call Ph.D. and Vanessa Downing Ph.D., how they pulled together this training and how exactly it prepares providers to better treat healthcare workers.

Another collaborator on this project Stacey Boyer, Psy.D. was unable to join the interview due to COVID-19, but continues to serve as a resource on this topic. She currently serves as the Associate Director of Clinical Services at the University of Delaware and through private practice at Boyer Psychological Services LLC.

The team from the Center for WorkLife WellBeing convened to teach Frontline Connect about their Psych First Aid training for managers. The program Model incorporates self-care, leadership, and peer support and aims to intervene to remove stressors, prevent further harm, and promote recovery. The program operates on three R’s: recognize, recover, and refer. The team dives into what the program itself looks like, how it was built, and the abundant support it received from system leadership. They explain how leadership incentivized the training and the tremendous success they saw in their very first year of the program.

Chief Wellness Officer, Nigel Girgrah and Morgan Lewis, Associate Program in the Office of Professional Well-being share how Ochsner Health has implemented their Mental Health ERG in service of their overall goal of “education, normalization, and rolling out services and supports.” Nigel provides insight into his own lived experience, and how it influenced his buy-in to the Mental Health Diplomats employee resource group. He references how introducing mental health programs such as this is high-impact and low-energy, expressing how the work is much more manageable than some may believe. Morgan shares the successes that they have seen in their first year of the program and the steps they took to make it happen.

In this interview, Gaurava Agarwal, MD speaks with Marschall S. Runge, M.D., Ph.D. and Claire Collins, MD to learn about the impressive work done on behalf of the Medical Student Mental Health Program at Michigan Medical School. The Medical Student Mental Health Program is a no-cost, confidential program that offers psychiatric evaluations, evidence-based treatment, and referrals to both internal and community therapists. Dr. Collins shares insights into identifying the need for better student mental health services and the steps she took to get this issue the necessary attention. Dr. Runge outlines why he supported the program and the work he did to push the project through all the necessary channels. To read about the research conducted by Dr. Collins and her colleagues click here.

Marschall S. Runge, M.D., Ph.D currently serves as Dean, University of Michigan Medical School, Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, U-M, and CEO, Michigan Medicine. Dr. Runge has long served as a clinician specializing in Cardiology as well as an academic leader in medicine for nearly 40 years.

Claire Collins, M.D., is a PGY-1, in Internal Medicine and Psychiatry at University of Kentucky Medicine. Claire completed the proposals and initiation of the Medical Student Mental Health Program during her time as a student at Michigan Medical School.

At the American Psychiatric Association 2023 Annual Meeting, Frontline Connect was featured in a panel session chaired by Gaurava Agarwal, M.D.. The session featured the work that hospitals, health systems, and health advocacy organizations are doing that have improved mental health resources for frontline healthcare workers. They provide insight on change management and implementation strategies that have allowed these innovations and programs to be successful.

Learning Objectives

1. Understanding a framework for various aspects of mental health care that can be improved for healthcare clinicians.
2. Understanding innovative approaches that health systems and programs are implementing to offer an array of mental health services and supports that address clinicians with mental health care needs.

3. Understanding the change management process in implementing system updates that improve mental health care services.

Speakers (Panelists)

• Chair: Gaurava Agarwal, MD, Chief Wellness Executive, Northwestern Medicine; Director of Faculty Wellness, Northwestern University; Associate Professor, Departments of Medical Education and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine; Expert Consultant, Frontline Connect Initiative
• Linda Bresnahan, MS, Executive Director, Federation of State Physician Health Programs
• Mary Moffit, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Oregon Health & Science University; Director, Resident & Faculty Wellness and Peer Support Programs
• Christine Yu Moutier, MD, Chief Medical Officer, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
• Nathalie Dougé, MD, Board Member, Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation; Former Hospitalist and Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Northwell Health.