top of page
Medical symbols on wooden blocks. Medical and pharmaceutical concept. Medical treatment an

The Healing
Public Health Caregiver
Project
TM

 

Infinity Logos-02.png

Protecting our Public Health Caregivers

Our public health caregivers are passionate, caring, and empathic people. They are the backbone of community health. Their capacity to care for others is their superpower. "Two years of COVID response have contributed to increased stress and burnout, as well post-traumatic stress symptoms, according to the Public Health Workforce Interests and Needs Survey (PH WINS)."

​

The "cost of caring" in human service professions like public health is experienced as compassion fatigue, secondary trauma, sacrifice syndrome, and burnout. ​According to the results of a National Survey of the Public Health Workforce, 56% of public health caregivers have reported at least 1 symptom of PTSD since the COVID-19 outbreak. Burnout and stress are cited as 2 of the top 5 reasons for leaving the public health profession.

​

Results of a National Survey of the Public Health Workforce

Screen Shot 2022-09-28 at 4.51.19 PM.png

Those who care are at the highest risk of burning out.

Public Health Concept. Medical Social Treatment Service. Modern Healthcare Pharmacy System

What we know about burnout

  • Unchecked and accumulated stress in one’s professional life can reach a destructive tipping point where what innocuously begins as an “occupational identity crisis” generalizes to the entire self-concept of the human service professional (Vandenberghe & Huberman, 1999).

​

  • Burnout is a slow dis-integration of the public health caregiver that goes unnoticed over time and it reveals itself as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and low self-efficacy

​

  • The way a public health caregiver self-evaluates their capacity in meeting the demands of their job has a profound impact on how much stress they experience and internalize. 

Healing and Heading-off Burnout

Fundamental elements to diminishing the negative impact of burnout in both the public health caregiver and the community care system include:

 

Raising awareness of the toxic stressors of the profession that drive burnout

 

Proactively integrating institutional support for caregivers that allows them to feel seen, witnessed, and cared for

 

Systematically and strategically engaging caregivers in evidence-based professional learning experiences that invite them to learn how to manage and mitigate the impact of toxic stress and metabolize stress in a way that drives deeper connections to the self and one's calling as a public health caregiver

 

Providing ongoing, sustained support for caregivers to engage healing and restoration practices in a community setting

PUBLIC HEALTH CONCEPT   Professional doctor use computer and medical equipment all around,

The Healing Public Health Caregiver ProjectTM is an experience and evidence-based curriculum of emotional healing, mental health, and burnout restoration designed for public health caregivers. We know that our public health caregivers "support and maximize human and system capacity and potential" (Kreitzer and Koithan, 2019), and our curriculum is designed to support and maximize their capacity and potential. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our curriculum and preventative healing and restoration practices are innovative and impactful, and we design learning experiences for health caregivers that draw on MINDFULNESS, NEUROSCIENCE, TRANSFORMATION THEORY, adult SOCIAL and EMOTIONAL LEARNING, HEALTH EQUITY, and HEALING-CENTERED DESIGN to intentionally leverage the inherent stressors of the health care profession for learning the process for metabolizing toxic stressors, preventing burnout from taking root, and restoring mental and emotional resilience.

​

“Human beings are whole systems, inseparable from their environments, and have an innate capacity for health and well-being.” (Kreitzer and Koithan)

OUTCOMES

Through the The Healing Public Health Caregiver ProjectTM, we will

  • learn the 3 R's of public health caregiver well-being, resilience, healing, and restoration,

  • explore the primary sources of toxic stress in public health caregiving, 

  • discover and engage trauma-informed principles and practices to REGULATE, RELATE, and REASON in stressful moments in the public health field,

  • explore the 3 core competencies of self-compassion as a cure for compassion fatigue and secondary trauma,

  • learn how to engage the 4 core well-being elements of Infinite Well-Being ModelTM  so to metabolize a trigger into a moment of resilience and restoration,

  • engage practices for protecting their energy from being fully depleted by their calling to heal while stoking autonomy and professional agency

  • engage an evidence-based C.A.R.E Model to explore the core concepts of health equity: examining assumptions, perspective taking, unconditional positive regard (asset-based approach), agency, and sharing power 

TRAINING DESIGN and DELIVERY

The Healing Public Health Caregiver ProjectTM is a professional development experience that can be customized to fit your unique professional learning needs. All training sessions and formats include:

Direct instruction on current, evidence-based foundational knowledge and data about public health care professional burnout, compassion fatigue, resilience, and healing.

Mindful mental health visualization practices that calm a busy mind and settle the nervous system

Gentle mindful moment practices that strengthen the parasympathetic nervous system's relaxation response

Put Into Practice training handbook that outlines detailed well-being practices to integrate into one's professional and personal life

Foundations Training

6 hours 

Patient with Healthcare Nurse

The Public Health Caregiver

Presence Impact

Infinity Logos-02.png

When caregivers are stressed and experiencing burnout, it is easy to forget the power of their presence in their caregiving. In this foundations workshop, caregivers connect with their purpose and calling. We then discuss how one's calling as a caregiver is intimately intertwined with one's emotional and mental health. 

 

We discuss the 3 R's ~REST, RESTORATION, REVITALIZATION~ of health caregiver emotional healing and mental health.

​

Health caregivers are given two things they need most, time and space, to re-connect with their purpose and passion while they engage and learn soothing body-awareness practices that settle a busy mind and overactive nervous system. 

This session sets the foundational concepts of the 3 R's of Public Health Caregiver Restoration and Healing
  • Explore the core sources of stress in the health care field
  • Rediscover one's purpose, calling, and values as a health caregiver
  • Explore the origins of joy and flow in one's role as a health caregiver and learn why joy is essential to caregiver effectiveness
  • Explore the 3 R's~ REST, RESTORATION, REVITALIZATION~ of health caregiver well-being
  • Engage and experience mind-body healing practices that calm a busy mind and sooth the nervous system so to relieve anxiety and overwhelm
  • Explore how one's presence has a profound impact on patient care and well-being 

​​

This foundations session is designed to be a 5-6 hour, in-person, training

​

 

Investment cost for this foundations training is $7,000 (up to150 individuals)

4 Core Topic Trainings

3 hours each

Healthcare and medical concept. Medicine doctor with stethoscope in hand and Patients come
Infinity Logos-02.png

"Acting slow in the quick meeting means that the nurse-patient relationship is characterized by calmness and quietness, the nurse’s engagement in the patient’s suffering and her help to the patient to endure the present and hold the now." (Dreyer, et al., 2018)

​

Busyness and time stress has become a predominate mode of being in many of our systems of care. When public health caregivers feel time-starved, it impacts their entire mind-body-spirit system. In this session, we explore how to create the "slow in the quick" where the health caregiver learns strategies and mindsets to care from a place of presence and patience even in the midst of the swiftness of time. 

Core Topic Training #1

Managing Energy, Not Time

This session sets the foundational concepts of Burnout AwarenessMental Health, and Energy Restoration​
  • Explore the foundations of prioritizing one's wellbeing-- purpose, values, perspective, and presence
  • Cultivate burnout awareness/energy depletion:
    • What is burnout?​ 
    • What does burnout do to the mind, body, and spirit of the health caregiver
    • What are the stages and manifestations of burnout?
    • How can I care for myself when I am suffering from burnout?
    • What is spiritual exhaustion and moral injury?
    • How does burnout exacerbate perfectionism?
  • Learn about the 3 core elements of mental health for caregivers to overcome perfectionism
  • Explore the #1 stressor for caregivers, time-stress, and learn how to create the "slow in the fast" in one's practice
  • Discover one's personal time-stress triggers that drive burnout and learn an evidence-baed CARE practice for transforming a time trigger into greater presence
  • Engage and experience REST mind-body practices that slow the fast moving mind and body to create a sense of groundedness and stability in the present moment
Nurse Talking to Patient
Infinity Logos-02.png

Healing the Self Through Toxic Stress

Core Topic Training #2

"Healing is a practice. It's not a one-time thing or idea. If I get up and do a bunch of exercises and repeat them, over time my muscles with get stronger. Healing is a practice just like this." (M. Schroedl)

​

Our public health caregivers know better than most that healing is practice, and it requires attention, dedication, and commitment. Yet compassion fatigue and burnout inhibit a health caregiver's ability to turn their healing attention on themselves. In this session, we focus our attention on specific practices that health caregivers can leverage THROUGH stressful moments to transfigure toxic stress into moments of self-care and self-healing.

This session sets the foundational concepts of Toxic Stress, Trauma Reactions, and Healing​
  • Explore the toxic stress impact and it's connection to trauma:
    • What is toxic stress vs. healthy/productive stress?
    • How does toxic stress create trauma in the body?
    • What is productive/healthy stress?
    • What are the different stages of a trigger? 
  • Discover one's personal triggers that drive trauma reactions and learn an evidence-baed H.E.A.L practice for transforming a trigger into healing, insight, and mental health
  • Explore the 4 models of Attachment and reflect on how trauma resides in the nervous system
  • Engage and experience RESTORATIVE mind-body practices that settle and safeguard the body and befriend the nervous system

Core Topic Training #3

Doctor and senior woman wearing facemasks during coronavirus and flu outbreak. Virus prote
Infinity Logos-02.png

Compassionate Public Health Caregivers

“It’s critical to realize that this epidemic of compassion fatigue is a shared responsibility. Individuals are not going to ‘resilience their way’ out of this. The medical system and culture of medicine have to change.” Oana Tomescu, MD

​

We believe that the calling to be a public health caregiver is about care and healing for the communities they serve, AND we believe that public health caregivers were called to this healing work not only to heal others but to heal themselves. We believe that the stress of the profession can produce incredible depths of compassion and care, and not just for patients. We believe that public health caregivers can learn strategies, perspectives, habits, and ways of being in relationship to stress and PTSD that stoke self-witnessing, self-compassion, and unconditional positive regard. Compassion for the self begets compassion for those in one's care. Compassion heals burnout, secondary trauma, and compassion fatigue.

​

This session sets the foundational concepts of Relationship Revitalization and Compassionate Caregiving 
  • Learn and practice the 3 core elements of self-compassion while exploring how self-compassion has protective properties that stave off secondary trauma and compassion fatigue
  • Explore the difference between compassion fatigue, burnout, and secondary trauma
  • Experience the C.A.R.E healing module for revitalizing relationships based on deep listening and empathy
  • Discover one's personal triggers that drive compassion fatigue
  • Learn an evidence-based C.A.R.E practice for strengthening healthy relationships and social connections in the workplace where all feel safe, significant, and valued
  • Engage and experience REVITALIZING mind-body practices that activate the "soul nerve" and drive connection with those in our care

“SHIP recognizes that our lived experiences with other people and our natural environment have a profound impact on the physical, mental, and social dimensions of our health. The intersection of these dimensions determines our state of well-being.

 

To optimize well-being, people require conditions that allow them to feel that they belong, and that they are safe, significant, and valued."

​

​

Health Equityt Sign.Text underline with red line. Isolated on blue background with stethos
Infinity Logos-02.png
This session sets the foundational concepts of Health Equity and how they are cultivated, practiced, and embodied
  • Explore the core concepts of health equity: examining assumptions, perspective taking, unconditional positive regard (asset-based approach), agency, and sharing power 
  • Explore how core concepts of health equity are practiced and embodied through the C.A.R.E Model
  • Experience and practice how the C.A.R.E Model promotes the cultivation of the core concepts of health equity within the self so to embody asset-based community engagement

Core Topic Training #4

​​

Each of the core training sessions are designed to be 3-4 hours

In-person session dates and time frames to be determined by organization​​

​

 

Investment cost for the core trainings are $4,500 each 

  • Total cost for all 4 trainings sessions $18,000

INVESTMENT COSTS

​​

Foundations Training (5-6 hours)                    $7,000

(4) Core Topic Trainings (3-4 hours each)        $18,000

​

Included Materials

*Customized website for your group that includes supplemental online resources (articles, yoga videos, guided meditations, etc.) that extend the learning from the foundations training and each of the core learning sessions. Available for 3 months following the last session of the in-person training.

​

*Detailed "Put Into Practice" PDFs are provided for the foundations training and each of the 4 core topics trainings. These are distributed and used at the in-person sessions.

​

*Customized newsletter follow-up for each session emailed to the group after the in-person session to support the integration phase of learning between sessions. 

​

​

Total investment cost: $25,000

​

​

bottom of page