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- Hello, everyone and welcome to The Wrap,
brought to you by Michigan Medicine Headlines.
I'm Dan Ellman with the Department of Communication.
This week we'll be looking out for your wellness,
as we chat with Dr. Kirk Brower,
the organization's Chief Wellness Officer.
Before we get into our conversation,
be sure to take just a few minutes
and get caught up on any episodes
of The Wrap you may have missed.
You can find them on YouTube, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play,
or any other podcast hosting platform.
New episodes debut weekly can always be found
as part of the Headlines Weekend review.
All right now let's bring in our featured guest.
This week wraps up Mental Health Awareness Month.
And on The Wrap, we've discussed some tips and resources
that can help you cope during COVID-19.
One thing we haven't touched on much though,
is the Michigan Medicine Wellness office
led by Dr. Kirk Brower.
Dr. Brower, thank you so much for joining us today.
- Pleasure to be here.
- Now first, can you give us a brief overview
of the Wellness Office and how and when it was created?
- Sure, the Wellness Office was created in March of 2019
and it emerged as a recommendation
from the Civility and Wellness task force,
which was a 15-member leadership task force
and so it was a recommendation for them
and in part in response to a faculty survey
that we did in 2017,
showing that approximately 42% of our faculty,
had symptoms of burnout.
- Gotcha, now what from a personal perspective,
what sort of got you initially interested in wellness
and helping employees find wellness?
- Sure, well, prior to my job here,
I worked as a psychiatric consultant
for the Office of Clinical Affairs,
which credentials, physicians, physicians' assistants
and other providers so that they can practice
at Michigan Medicine and I was asked to consult
when there was a behavioral event
such as rudeness to another staff member,
or not answering one's pager, or coming late to work
and the question was,
is there a mental health issue going on
that might explain irritable behavior
or what we were seeing in the workplace?
So as I did that, sometimes I could diagnose depression,
or substance use disorder, sometimes not
but most of the time, there was a workplace stress.
I should say, a workplace stressor
that was going on in that person's life
and so it occurred to me,
well, why are we waiting till after these events occur?
Let's try to do something more preventive
and that's where the wellness office comes in.
- Yeah, and I think that perfectly segues
into my next question.
I was gonna ask sort of why wellness is so important
for faculty and staff
and I think you touched on it a little bit
can maybe expand, but it sort of presents itself right?
In different sorts of events,
in different sorts of behavior.
- Well, yes,
and our focus really is on organizational well-being
and culture and wellness is so important
because caring for ourselves and each other,
will improve everything that we do,
whether it be caring for patients, educating learners,
or making new scientific discoveries.
So we work best when we feel best.
In other words, working well and caring well
requires that we also take care of ourselves and each other.
- Yeah, yeah, so what sorts of resources and services
does the Wellness Office provide?
- So, the wellness because it focuses
on organizational health and well-being,
what we do is we work with leaders, academic departments
and faculty, various disciplines such as nursing,
medical assistants, physician's assistants
and we strive to assist their workplace well-being activity.
So we share best practices with them,
we share data from the institution
and again, our overall goal
is to improve workplace well-being.
We also partner with other groups at Michigan Medicine
to provide essential services like mental health services,
so for example, the office of Counseling
and Workplace Resilience, they provide counseling
and mental health services to faculty and staff
and they're the experts at that
and it doesn't make sense for us to duplicate those efforts.
Rather, we will partner with them
to assist them in doing their job.
- Yeah, now, how have the services
that the Wellness Office provides,
how have they changed during COVID-19?
- Well, they've changed in a number of ways.
One is that launching our website coincided with COVID-19
and so our website became the landing page
to find all well-being resources at Michigan Medicine.
So our website is wellnessoffice.med.umich.edu
and you can also access it on the Clinical Homepage
by clicking on COVID-19 Well-being,
I'm sorry Guide to Well-being During the COVID pandemic
on the right side of the menu there
and if you do,
you'll land on the COVID-19 Well-being Center.
- Outstanding, now, this is sort of a two-part question,
but I just wanna finish it up with this,
what sorts of employees
or what should employees be going through,
if they are gonna seek assistance
from the Wellness Office?
And then those who decide they should seek assistance,
how will they go about reaching out?
- Yeah, so you're right, there's a spectrum of reasons
one might reach out
and one doesn't have to have a mental health diagnosis
to reach out, really, what most people are looking for
is emotional support during this time,
sometimes tangible support
and if you're looking for that emotional support,
you can get that through the Office of Counseling
and Workplace Resilience,
their phone number is 734-763-5409.
And if you're looking,
there's also one can receive support by text.
So we have what's called the Crisis Text Line
and if one texts the key word you UMICH, U-M-I-C-H,
to 741-741, you'll be put in contact with somebody
who can assist you and provide emotional support
and both of these services are free, they're confidential,
there's no chatting in My Chat or anything like that.
Finally, if you want other services
on just educational resources, websites to go to,
or even if you decide you rather have counseling
outside of Michigan Medicine,
then you can go to our website and it will be there.
- Perfect, well, thank you so much, Dr. Brower
for giving us this insight into all the services
the Wellness Office provides, if you wanna learn more
about mental health resources
available at Michigan Medicine,
and get some important tips, go to mmheadlines.org.
That's mmheadlines.org.
While you're there, you can check out other featured stories
from this past week.
For instance, readers learned about one patient
who was able to have three elements cured in a single day
and employees were asked to promote the patient portal
as the organization goes to a virtual first approach.
Find those stories and much, much more at mmheadlines.org.
All right, it's time for the weekly trivia contest.
Last week, we asked listeners,
what song do music therapists perform
during their tribute to Michigan Medicine faculty and staff?
The answer is "Rise up."
Congratulations to Beth Ferera
who sent in the correct answer.
Beth, a member of the Department of Communication
will be in touch shortly to help you claim your prize.
And now for this week's question,
what sort of transplant did patient Al Nykamp undergo
when he was cured of three diseases in one day?
Once again, what sort of transplant
did Al Nykamp undergo
when he was cured of three diseases in a single day?
You can find the answer in a story earlier this week
at Headlines and once you know it,
send it to headlines@med.umich.edu
for the chance to win a great prize.
(upbeat music) That's all the time we have
for this week, Dr. Brower, thank you so much
for joining us and thank you to all (upbeat music)
of our listeners
and viewers, for everything you do for patients,
families and each other.
We'll see you next week.
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