The prevalence of burnout and increasing concerns about retention of employees across the landscape of health care and public health workers created a mandate for intervention starting in July 2020, when the Past the Pandemic ECHO series was launched. A partnership between University of Colorado Department of Psychiatry and ECHO Colorado, Past the Pandemic has delivered its specialized curriculum via live sessions to 17 cohorts and more than 900 participants in Colorado and 26 other states.
Acknowledging the chronic and changing nature of stress faced by health care and public health workers, the series has been improved and adapted to fit the current scope of needs. During the series, experts with decades of experience working with first responders and health care workers present and lead discussions on a variety of topics to build skills to increase capacity and mitigate the impact of stress and burnout. Following completion of Past the Pandemic, participants reported improvements in their sense of connection and ability to manage stress and worries.
Today, Past the Pandemic is part of CDPHE’s statewide CO-CARES initiative (Colorado Alliance for Resilient and Equitable Systems), serving the health care and public health workforce. This collaboration between many partners offers support and evidence-based resources at no cost to to individuals, peer champions and organizations. One example of an additional training is becoming a Certified Peer Specialist. Training employees in this program helps improve the culture of care and wellbeing, as Peer Supporters learn skills needed to notice and respond to their coworkers’ mental health distress and point them to local resources.
The Department of Psychiatry’s partnerships with CDPHE and other CO-CARES programs has been a humbling experience, as they recognize the breadth and depth of what may be needed to improve a system of care and wellbeing.
