Wellness initiative provides support and resources for caregivers

Approximately a 5-minute read with additional time to watch/listen to podcast

Key takeaways:

• Each year, the Wellness Office selects six faculty associates who aid in the understanding of workplace stressors and implement solutions to improve the quality of the workplace at Michigan Medicine.
• The Caregiving Boost Initiative tackles the issues facing faculty in a step-by-step process — and plans to grow to include all employees in the near future.
• In the end, the hope is that creating mentor teams and talking about the stressors that members of the community face, caregivers here can thrive in both their work and home environments.

Here at Michigan Medicine, we are fortunate to have dedicated faculty, staff and learners committed to creating a welcoming environment where everyone can study, learn and serve others to the best of their abilities.

One key group focused on improving employee wellbeing is the Michigan Medicine Wellness Office. Created in 2019, the office is devoted to reducing professional burnout and creating a caring, safe environment. In short, the Wellness Office wants to improve well-being in your professional life.

Every year, the Wellness Office selects six faculty associates to participate in scholarly work addressing drivers of workplace well-being over a 12-month period. Through research and the development of program pilots, the Wellness Office faculty associates aid in the understanding of workplace stressors and implement solutions to improve the quality of the workplace at Michigan Medicine.

The Caregiving Boost Initiative

One of these faculty associates, Helen Kang Morgan, M.D., recently began a pilot program for faculty titled the “Michigan Medicine Caregiving Boost Initiative.” Morgan, clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology and learning health sciences at the U-M Medical School, created this initiative in an effort to provide positive role models, mentorship teams and support to Michigan Medicine faculty who are caregivers (e.g. children, dependent care or elder care).

“We started this Caregiving Boost Initiative to take faculty who have caregiving needs and pair them with a caregiving boost team,” said Morgan. “This team is made up of a group of mentors to help faculty with the integration of their personal and professional lives, in order to thrive in both spaces.”

Participants in this program receive group coaching, peer support and mentorship through Caregiving Boost teams. Each team is created to provide individualized guidance for each mentee based on their personal and professional needs.

For the pilot of the initiative, faculty members had three boost team meetings as well as access to additional group coaching sessions.

Morgan said she was excited to begin this program as an effort to address stressors for caregivers at both organizational and individual levels.

“It has been really nice to think about systems-level solutions to assist faculty with these stressors that they are facing, especially with everything that has happened with the pandemic,” Morgan said.

Results of the pilot

Leading up to the pilot of the Caregiving Boost Initiative, Morgan was impressed with how many faculty agreed to be part of these mentorship teams.

“People are stretched thin already, but I was amazed that such a large proportion of the people that I asked to be a part of this were eager to do it,” said Morgan. “I think everyone here is very interested in helping others.”

A key element of this initiative is recognizing the stressors that caregivers face on a daily basis, a point that Morgan said the mentor teams emphasize. Previous research done by Morgan and her team showed that faculty — especially women faculty members — did not feel comfortable talking about these stressors with their departmental and divisional leadership.

With that in mind, the Caregiving Boost Initiative tackled the issues facing faculty in a step-by-step process.

“Step one is asking about what the stressors are,” said Morgan, “and the second step is thinking about creative and flexible solutions to help faculty as we all start to rebuild and begin to thrive following the pandemic.”

While the pilot was limited to faculty, Morgan hopes that the Caregiving Boost Initiative can expand to staff and learners at Michigan Medicine soon.

“There is no question that staff and learners, in addition to faculty, face all of these stressors. We hope to expand this initiative quickly.”

Additional tips and future goals

Looking forward with the goal of implementing the Caregiving Boost Initiative on a larger scale, Morgan hopes that the program can provide positive role models and connections for staff, faculty and learners who might not have them.

“I was fortunate to have many men and women in my department who had kids and had done well professionally so I have had many successful role models, mentors and sponsors, but I think many people don’t currently have that,” Morgan said.

Her team is also launching a monthly series on The Wrap employee podcast touching on various caregiving challenges. The first of the series debuted this week and can be found via YouTube at the top of the page or via the media player below (audio-only version).

In the end, the hope is that creating mentor teams and talking about the stressors that members of the community face, caregivers here can thrive in both their work and home environments.

“Our biggest goal is really to normalize conversations about challenges and successes, because we don’t really talk about either,” said Morgan. “We don’t talk about faculty, staff and learners who are struggling with caregiving needs, but we also don’t talk about men and women who have done well integrating it into their lives.”

The end goal will be that nobody at Michigan Medicine has to feel isolated or alone.

“I would encourage everybody to connect with others,” said Morgan, “whether it’s reaching out to peers, mentors, role models, sponsors, coaches, or anyone else who can help. It’s important to connect with others because it can feel so isolating for people trying to juggle everything in their work and home lives.”