ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Rochester Regional Health has launched a new peer support program across its health system to help employees cope with workplace stress.
Dr. Brian Watkins is a general surgeon at Rochester Regional Health. He saves lives every day in the operating room, but he’s lost patients too and that can take an emotional toll. “When you think about physicians and surgeons, in particular, you think of a stoic person, a gritty person because to get to that point you kind of have to have that and there’s not a lot of emotional training in your training,” Dr. Watkins explains.
It was something that always bothered him, “we’ve normalized this toxic stress in medicine for a long time, it just wasn’t a topic people talked about,” Dr. Watkins says. That’s what led him to create a peer support group among his fellow surgeons. The confidential program allows colleagues to talk through difficult experiences with someone who understands. “It’s coffee, it’s a phone call, it’s meeting for a bite, it’s very, very informal and just that human interaction with someone who has been in your shoes to help you navigate some of things you might be going through,” Dr. Watkins says.
The program has been so successful, it’s being expanded system wide. Thirty peers with different job titles were recently trained to help others — doctors are paired with doctors, nurses with nurses, social workers, food service workers—anyone who might need or want the help.
The program is called PIER, which stands for Partners in Emotional and Recovery.
Levi Gangi, coordinator of RRH Behavioral Health, says co-workers can relate in ways that loved ones sometimes can’t. “If you go home and talk to your loved ones, they might be sympathetic, but they don’t work in the setting, but your coworkers can relate to what you’re talking about,” Gangi tells News10NBC.
So far, the PIER team has worked with many employees who don’t necessarily ask for help but are willing to accept it when someone reaches out. Gangi said peer responders can proactively contact employees after learning about difficult events. “Even if somebody doesn’t reach in and say “hey, I need support,” we would be able to hear about an event that happened and have one of our peer responders reach out to them directly and then they could say, “yeah I’d like to talk confidentially about what happened thanks for calling me and talk to somebody who can relate,”” Gangi explains.
The program aims to help employees, but leaders believe it will ultimately benefit patients too. “In order for us to be at our best, we have to be well,” Dr. Watkins says.