Coffee with COR — an interview with Pejman Mahdavi, LCSW, Director of Community CARE, and Anne McMicken, LMSW, Community Connections Coordinator, Viewpoint Health.
Viewpoint Health is a community service board in Georgia that provides services to individuals who need treatment and support to cope with mental illness, substance abuse, and intellectual and developmental disabilities.
COR: Can you explain Viewpoint’s involvement with the Department of Public Health during the COVID-19 response?
Pej Mahdavi: The involvement of Viewpoint during this response stemmed from the realization that mental health is a significant component of public health. I was deployed to Hurricane Dorian in 2019 on a strike team, and that proved to our leadership team — and to myself — how critical having an onsite mental health resource was in a public health response.
Anne McMicken: I have been involved since March. My involvement has changed over the course of this pandemic. At first my primary role was to provide emotional support to people getting tested for COVID-19. In the beginning, fear was palpable in both the healthcare professionals and the patients. Since then I have supported the Incident Command leadership team, served as a staff advocate, and provided counsel and emotional support for all staff.
COR: What approach did you take to ensuring public health staff were emotionally supported during the pandemic?
Pej Mahdavi: It was important that we placed the right mental health staff in this role. This person had to be approachable, adaptable and willing to change course quickly. Our staff had to anticipate the needs of the next hour or day, and not focus any further than that. In a true emergency response you need people who can think critically and shift with the need.
Anne McMicken: Crisis is where we thrive. Anyone who responds to a public health emergency has to recognize where they are needed to cover gaps. I changed my approach daily depending on who needed me most. Some days it was the patient, other days the staff.
COR: Healthcare professionals famously do not take part in self-care. What basic tips can they incorporate?
Pej Mahdavi: First and foremost, you have to call them out. Secondly, we had to change the culture. We were challenged to get healthcare workers engaged, and we did it by drawing parallels and helping remove the stigma of self-care. The old-school mantra — come to work and get it done — is not sustainable in a long-term emergency response. We recruited a few first followers from the leadership team and flipped the culture.
Why wouldn’t you take care of your mental health like you would take care of something like diabetes?
Pejman Mahdavi
Anne McMicken: Healthcare workers have to make self-care and emotional wellness a habit. Leaders have to lead by example, and what keeps one person motivated is not necessarily what keeps others motivated. Once a leader recognizes this individuality it becomes much easier to spark the team. It comes down to individuals recognizing they need to focus on their emotional health — and the good news is that it is never too late.
The COR perspective
We can’t lie: practicing self-care is hard. We found ourselves head down, buried in the response, trying to build the plane while we were flying it. That can be true in any crisis. But this is not a code blue that lasts an hour, or even a hurricane response that lasts a few days.
We are thankful to Viewpoint for taking care of our patients, our fellow healthcare workers, and us.
