SalusCare participated in a weekly pilot program to lessen the burnout and stress of its behavioral healthcare workers.
The collaboration began when Stacey Cook, president and CEO of SalusCare, and Jamie Stuart, CEO of Coherent Community Coaching, worked together to find a way to retain healthcare employees who were burnt out and overworked.
“At the end of the day, folks were going home and just not being able to do anything other than either lie down, rest or do the bare necessities, because they were just too exhausted and tired,” Cook said.
SalusCare is a non-profit organization headquartered in Fort Myers providing mental health services and substance abuse counseling at several locations around Lee County.
Its solution to the issue was HeartMath. Founded in 1991, HeartMath is an evidence-based technique created for people who work in the healthcare industry.
The technique also is used to help veterans, active military members and administrators. The goal is to help people manage their internal operating system from the inside.
According to HeartMath’s website, the program is meant to reduce stress, improve sleep, restore energy, balance emotions, increase focus and help people tap into their intuitions.
There are many ways to integrate HeartMath, but Cook chose the 16-week program that entails weekly 30-minute sessions. The sessions focused on practicing HeartMath techniques with Stuart with participants meeting with her from January through April this year.
“Recognizing that we must care and empower our caretakers if we want to sustain a healthcare workforce, I chose to primarily use the technologies from the Institute of HeartMath due to the efficacy and impact I have witnessed within myself, clients and within corporate cultures,” Stuart said.
Of SalusCare’s 325 employees, 30 participated including outpatient therapists and the organization’s executive board.
Some participants questioned the program at first.
“Originally, I was a bit skeptical because it seems so simple,” Michelle Sutherland, executive administrator and director of outsourced operations for SalusCare, said. “You know, change your breathing, change your focus and you can change your perspective on things.”
However, she said she started to see a change in her mindset as she went through the program.
“I believe I'm a little more patient, a little more understanding,” Sutherland said. “I'm able to receive other people's feedback in opinions more clearly and give them more consideration and thoughtfulness than I probably did before.”
Some of the sessions focused on active listening and communication.
“I noticed individuals are talking to each other more, and far more transparently and authentically, because as we settle our neurology and become more aligned in functioning optimally and feeling good, then we find it a little bit easier to have tough conversations,” Cook said.
For one of the participants, HearthMath became a tool for her daily life.
“At times we look at things as the golden ticket, like, ‘Oh, this is going to fix everything,’ ” Jessica Plazewski, vice president and chief operating officer for SalusCare, said. “I don't look at HeartMath that way, but I look at it in a way that we have to have tools in our toolboxes. And to me, HeartMath was a tool I didn't have that I have now that I have found is very purposeful for me.”
After the program, Cook learned there was a 26% decrease in anxiety and a 20% decrease in tension and stress. Those figures are based on surveys of participants, taken before and after HeartMath.
Although HeartMath is made for workers in specialized fields, anyone is encouraged to use the techniques.
“Although we work in behavioral health care, we're very much a business,” Sutherland said. “We very much focus on customer service and outcomes and effectiveness and efficiency. And I think those are all commonalities across all areas of workplaces. So, I think it's applicable in any setting.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 46% of healthcare workers reported often feeling burned out in 2023. That compares with 32% in 2018.
“This program is an opportunity to heal our healthcare workers that have been taking care of our community and preserving them so that they can stay in this community and continue to provide care,” Cook said.
WGCU is your trusted source for news and information in Southwest Florida. We are a nonprofit public service, and your support is more critical than ever. Keep public media strong and donate now. Thank you. Tori Foltz is an intern in the WGCU News Path program.