NY Project HOPE Emotional Support Line
Through an emotional support helpline, educational materials, and trusted referrals, NY Project Hope helps people manage changes brought on by COVID-19. The emotional support helpline can be reached by calling 844-863-9314, 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week. Talking to Project Hope Counselors is free, confidential, and anonymous. Click here to access pamphlets and outreach materials. To learn more, visit NY Project Hope – Coping with Covid-19 | Emotional Support Helpline.
Hospital Heroes Program
Give an Hour’s Hospital Heroes during COVID-19 Program provides six hours of free, confidential mental health support to hospital-based essential employees and their loved ones in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. This program is available to clinical personnel offering direct patient care and non-clinical care to hospital employees. Give an Hour initially focused on supporting the military and their families and has since expanded to other populations in need.
Give an Hour has also developed pamphlets and informational materials on recognizing signs of emotional suffering for self and others, healthy habits of emotional wellbeing during COVID-19, and strategies to support others from a distance. These materials can be distributed to health care staff or posted to remind staff to monitor signs of emotional distress and provide strategies to maintain emotional wellbeing.
Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress and the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health: Curriculum Recommendations for Disaster Health Professionals, Disaster Behavioral Health, Second Edition
This tool is designed to assist with disaster behavioral health curriculum development. It helps those seeking to better understand the psychological and behavioral health impacts of disasters on responders and the community. The tool highlights disaster preparedness strategies, response, and recovery. Additionally, it details psychological and behavioral responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on resilience, distress reactions, health risk behaviors, and psychiatric disorders. The tool directs users to quality resources, including quick-read resources and journal articles.
National Institute for Health Care Management: COVID-19 and Mental Health in the Workplace: Solutions for Employers and Employees, New Webinar Video
This webinar explores short- and long-term strategies that employers can use to address mental health challenges from COVID-19 and prevent its potential long-lasting effects. Topics to be discussed include stressors from COVID-19 and its emotional and psychological impact, risk factors for developing mental health disorders, and strategies for employers to prevent exposure and support staff’s mental health. The webinar also reviews strategies adopted by a health plan to provide resources and prioritize mental health among its employees and members. Additionally, the webinar provides recommendations and resources to provide social justice-informed mental health support and better address mental health needs of the Black community.
NYCEM Mental Health Resources
New York City Emergency Management (NYCEM) shared resources to support mental health for health care workers:
- NYC Well can be reached by calling 1-888-NYC-WELL (1-888-692-9355) or texting “WELL” to 65173
- Mental Health and Coping During COVID-19 (CDC)
- Taking Care of Your Behavioral Health (SAMHSA)
NYC WELL COVID-19 Digital Mental Health Resources
NYC Well curated no-cost digital mental health resources that can be used for the duration of the COVID-19 to help with managing health and emotional wellbeing. You can access them by clicking:
Free On-Demand Behavioral Health Coaching for Frontline Health Care Workers
Ginger.io, a behavioral health app, will offer US-based health systems the option to provide their frontline healthcare workers with free, on-demand behavioral health coaching through the end of June 2020. Eligible health care workers will be able to chat in real-time with a trained behavioral health coach, any time of day or night. The Ginger app is available on both iOS and Android. Health systems interested in offering this free benefit to their frontline workers should contact Ginger.
Schwartz Center Supporting Health Care
The Schwartz Center for Compassionate Care has developed a resources page to help health care professionals cope with the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the Center offers a weekly series of Compassion in Action webinars about various aspects of the COVID-19 experience.
The Schwartz Center is now offering Stress First Aid (SFA), a psychological first aid framework, to its member organizations. SFA offers supportive actions that promote self-care and peer support, enabling teams to identify and mitigate the negative impacts of stress at work before they impair staff health and wellbeing. The SFA model is based on five evidence-informed factors that help people recover from stress and adversity: the need for safety, calm, connection, a sense of competence or self-efficacy, and hope.
NYC COVID Care Network
NYC COVID Care Network is a mutual aid network comprised of volunteer therapists, psychiatrists, counselors, life coaches, grief counselors, spiritual care providers, and crisis line workers that serves all essential workers, their families, and any uninsured individuals in the New York City Metro area. Available support includes individual support encounters, support groups, stress-reduction trainings, and grief and loss rituals.