Cultivating a Resiliency Model for Emergency Department and Intensive Care Unit Staff Through Peer Support: A Program Description

Emergency department (ED) and intensive care unit (ICU) staff experience significant and ongoing exposure to mental health trauma due to the extremely high number of tragic cases consistently seen. Despite awareness of the magnitude of this problem, there is a scarcity of clinical efforts directed toward reducing and managing secondary traumatic stress and vicarious trauma. In an effort to promote resiliency in these frontline workers, we describe development and implementation of the Adapted Peer Support Resiliency Program (APSRP), a psychoeducational and cognitive reframing behavioral-based program equipped with peer support professionals who are trained in cognitive-behavioral strategies specifically tailored toward the needs of this population. The APSRP is an adaption of concepts and coping skills utilized by the Penn Resilience Program, which has previously demonstrated efficacy in combating a range of psychological problems (e.g., anxiety, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, and severe mental illness). The APSRP incorporates a range of cognitive-behavioral strategies inclusive of cognitive reframing skills, role-playing, and behavior rehearsal. This proposed program was facilitated and supervised by a licensed mental health professional and implemented by fellow ED and ICU peer professionals. Components of the APSRP model are discussed. Suggestions for directing future efforts within this needed area are offered.