UTRGV Grant To Address Physician Mental Health

By:

UTRGV Grant To Address Physician Mental Health

The UTRGV School of Medicine is the recent recipient of a $1.75-million grant to address mental health in physicians, and ways to support and improve it.

As part of the Health Resources and Services Administration‘s Fortify Resilience Initiative grant, the School of Medicine plans to implement programs designed to “check up” on physicians to combat mental health issues in the medical field.

Dr. Nausheen Jamal – associate dean of Graduate Medical Education, Designated Institutional Official, and professor and chair of the UTRGV School of Medicine’s department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery – was one of 34 grantees across the country to get the grant, aimed at improving the well being of the healthcare workforce.

“From research that we do, we have seen that patients get higher-quality and safer care when their physicians are doing well,” she said.

According to a 2018 report on physician mental health and suicide, 66 percent of male physicians and 58 percent of females who reported burnout, depression or both had never received professional help, were not currently seeking professional help and did not plan to seek professional help.

Given that data, the school decided aggressive steps are needed to address the rampant problem of burnout among healthcare practitioners.

Jamal, along with Dr. Deepu George, will develop and implement training activities to reduce and address burnout, suicide, mental health conditions and substance use disorders among healthcare workers. George is the grant co-principal investigator as well as a UTRGV associate professor of Family Medicine and a behavioral health consultant.

“The intended goal is to boost the resiliency of healthcare students, residents, professionals and trainees in rural and underserved communities like the Rio Grande Valley,” Jamal said.

Dr. Nausheen Jamal (photo David Pike, UTRGV)
Dr. Nausheen Jamal (photo David Pike, UTRGV)

The team plans to address mental health disparities via three key drivers:

  • Access Strategies – The School of Medicine will provide clinical coaching services; evidence-based wellness curricula through live online-learning sessions; and yearly wellness checks for all residents and fellows.
  • Empowerment Initiatives – The School of Medicine will provide self-management at the individual and program level, powered by the launch of the Wellness Mobile Application prototype, and the dissemination of a Wellbeing Champion Toolkit to each UTRGV Graduate Medical Education program.
  • System Redesign – The School of Medicine will develop a Master Trainer Faculty Development track to graduate 20 GME faculty members with competency to internally deliver resiliency curricula to residents and fellows.

“Our intended goal is that, by 2024, the Fortify Resilience initiative will impact more than 150 UTRGV residents and fellows, along with training 20 faculty members,” Jamal said.

Dr. Michael B. Hocker. dean of the UTRGV School of Medicine and senior vice president for UT Health RGV, said these projects are crucial to the future of medicine.

“We know here at UTRGV just how important being proactive with one’s mental health is,” Hocker said. “This is a perfect example of how we are thinking to the future to ensure that our patients, as well as those who serve them, are healthy.”

Jamal and her team will begin implementing the program by summer 2022.

“If our residents are healthy and resilient, then our patients and our Valley community will be safer and get higher-quality healthcare. That’s our goal.”

Comments