“ If you ’ re burnt out and exhausted , how are you going to have the energy to go and see somebody ? It ’ s a vicious cycle ,” Brewer says . “ This is in part why we developed these digital therapeutics , because I wanted to help overcome some of those barriers to entry .”
Even as the app went to mass market , though , Brewer recognized it had limits in addressing burnout among physicians . In the study , the app had the greatest effect on callousness — a defense mechanism people develop to protect themselves from burnout — and the least effect on emotional exhaustion , a factor often outside a health care worker ’ s control . Brewer interpreted these results to mean that while app-based mindfulness training can help health care workers and employees in other high-stress jobs control their responses to the pressures around them , external help can only go so far in fixing the institutional factors that create the stressful conditions .
“ An app is not going to fix a system , but it might help people free up their own individual energy to go and change the system ,” he says .
On a national scale , too , the country is taking note . Earlier this year , Congress passed the Dr . Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act , which establishes grant funding to support behavioral and mental health services for front-line medical workers . Named for a Manhattan emergency room doctor who took her own life in the early weeks of the pandemic , the bill also requires the Department of Health and Human Services to encourage health care providers to seek support and disseminate best practices for improving mental health and preventing suicide among medical workers .
“ I feel like there ’ s a lot more focus in the moment on this mentality of health care workers ,” says Brooke Huminski , a Providence-based psychotherapist who has treated health care workers both before and during the pandemic . “ I feel like the pendulum is moving . Is it moving fast enough ?”
AT HER HOME IN CRANSTON , Helene Macedo has come a long way since October of 2020 . She now works six-and-a-half hours at a time and has resumed going to the gym . She goes out to restaurants
We Support Local Business
Proud Member Of :
RIMonthly . com
This advertising offer is too delicious to pass up ...
Learn about our restaurant program for year-long presence in print and online at RIMonthly . com
Contact Kieran Keating at 401-649-4888 or kkeating @ rimonthly . com
Have you
been FEATURED
in the magazine ?
Make a lasting impression with all of your customers and display one of our beautiful framed plaques at your place of business .
For more information , please email Paige Zuber at pzuber @ rimonthly . com
PLEASE NOTE : These are the only authorized plaques produced exclusively by Rhode Island Monthly . Do not accept solicitations from other vendors .
RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l MAY 2022 125